Stand characteristics and climate modulate height to diameter relationship in Pinus merkusii and P. michoacana in Zambia

Abstract

Abstract Changes in temperature and precipitation affect tree growth. Height-diameter (h-d) models that include stand characteristics and climatic factors effectively predict tree height. We assessed 3,425 pine trees in Zambia (P. merkusii and P. michoacana) to (i) test the effectiveness of the existing general h-d model on these species; (ii) develop mixed-effect h-d allometric models that provide the best fit; and (iii) assess the effect of stand characteristics and climate on the predictive ability of the h-d models. The existing h-d model for pine significantly (p