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Growth assessment in tropical trees: large daily diameter fluctuations and their concealment by dendrometer bands

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Title Growth assessment in tropical trees: large daily diameter fluctuations and their concealment by dendrometer bands
 
Creator Sheil, Douglas
 
Subject stems
dipterocarpaceae
growth
measurement
dendrometers
 
Description Tree stems contract and expand as stem water is depleted and replaced. Band dendrometer studies suggest that such daily changes are small (1 cm diameter), suggesting that significant biases are possible. An exploratory study examined the pattern and magnitude of daily stem changes and whether commercial band-dendrometers were able to reveal them. A method involving multiple precision measurements on eight trees in a Bornean hill dipterocarp forest revealed daily shrinkage and expansion of girth of around 1 mm. Fluctuations were greater in bright weather. Band-dendrometers detected these changes but revealed less than a tenth of their magnitude. An analytical model for dendrometer error is presented that predicts how measurement biases can be reduced. Tropical trees can fluctuate appreciably in stem diameter over the day. These reversible changes are of sufficient magnitude to merit concern in growth studies. Influential biases seem especially likely when measurement intervals are short and involve systematic differences in timing and weather. Further study is required to gauge the more general influence of these measurement problems.
 
Date 2003
2012-06-04T09:08:50Z
2012-06-04T09:08:50Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Sheil, D. 2003. Growth assessment in tropical trees: large daily diameter fluctuations and their concealment by dendrometer bands . Canadian Journal of Forest Research 33 (10) :2027-2035.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18794
https://www.cifor.org/knowledge/publication/1327
 
Language en
 
Format p. 2027-2035
 
Source Canadian Journal of Forest Research