Classifying development stages of primeval European beech forests: is clustering a useful tool?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Old-growth and primeval forests are passing through a natural development cycle with recurring stages of forest development. Several methods for assigning patches of different structure and size to forest development stages or phases do exist. All currently existing classification methods have in common that a priori assumptions about the characteristics of certain stand structural attributes such as deadwood amount are made. We tested the hypothesis that multivariate datasets of primeval beech forest stand structure possess an inherent, aggregated configuration of data points with individual clusters representing forest development stages. From two completely mapped primeval beech forests in Albania, seven ecologically important stand structural attributes characterizin

SUBMITTER: Glatthorn J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6247681 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature