Crown and basal area relationships of open-grown southern pines for modeling competition and growth

Data were collected on open-grown loblolly pine (Pinustaeda L.), longleaf pine (Pinuspalustris Mill.), and shortleaf pine (Pinusechinata Mill.) and analyzed to provide predictive equations of crown width and maximum potential basal area growth for crown competition and growth and yield models. The measurements were taken on 115 open-grown loblolly pine trees and 76 shortleaf pines in southeastern Arkansas. The longleaf pine data consisted of 81 open-grown trees from southern Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. A circle and an ellipse were tested as geometric models of the vertically projected crown. No significant differences between the tree shapes were found based on analyses of length and azimuth of the largest crown diameter, and the circle was chosen as an appropriate model. This indicated that only the distance between trees, not their orientation to one another, need be included in models of crown competition based on crown contact. Predictive equations of mean crown width based on diameter at breast height were fitted for each species for use in models of crown competition. A Chapman–Richards growth rate function with an intercept term was fit to periodic annual inside-bark basal area growth based on initial inside-bark basal area to provide empirical estimates of maximum basal area growth rates for growth and yield modeling of the given species. Additionally, equations to predict double bark thickness as a function of diameter at breast height were fit for each species to facilitate the use of the equations with outside-bark measurements of diameter.