Development of the gap model ZELIG-CFS to predict the dynamics of North American mixed forest types with complex structures

Guy R. Larocque, Louis Archambault and Claude Delisle

Ecological Modelling, 2011, vol. 222, issue 14, 2570-2583

Abstract: When the development of gap models began about three decades ago, they became a new category of forest productivity models. Compared with traditional growth and yield models, which aim at deriving empirical relationships that best fit data, gap models use semi-theoretical relationships to simulate biotic and abiotic processes in forest stands, including the effects of photosynthetic active radiation interception, site fertility, temperature and soil moisture on tree growth and seedling establishment. While growth and yield models are appropriate to predict short-term stemwood production, gap models may be used to predict the natural course of species replacement for several generations. Because of the poor availability of historical data and knowledge on species-specific allometric relationships, species replacement and death rate, it has seldom been possible to develop and evaluate the most representative algorithms to predict growth and mortality with a high degree of accuracy. For this reason, the developers of gap models focused more on developing simulation tools to improve the understanding of forest succession than predicting growth and yield accurately.

Keywords: Forest dynamics; Succession; Historical data; Gap models; Survival rate; Individual-based models (IBM's) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380010004485
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:14:p:2570-2583

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2010.08.035

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().