RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Assessing site form as an indicator of site quality in even-aged Pinus radiata D. Don stands in north-western Spain A1 Molina Valero, Juan Alberto A1 Diéguez Aranda, Ulises A1 Álvarez González, Juan Gabriel A1 Castedo Dorado, Fernando A1 Pérez Cruzado, César A2 Ingenieria Agroforestal K1 Ingeniería forestal K1 Site index K1 Predicting K1 Dominant diameter K1 Dominant height K1 Stand age AB [EN] Key message: Site form and site index have shown similar precision for estimating site quality in even-agedPinus radiataD. Don stands in north-western Spain. Additionally, SF presents the advantage that it does not require stand age information and can therefore be used in a wider set of situations in the forestry practice. Context: Estimation of site quality is essential for characterizing, monitoring and predicting forest resources. Site index (i.e. the dominant height of the stand at a reference age) is ordinarily used to estimate site quality; however, this index is only useful for even-aged stands of known age. By contrast, SF is age-independent as it uses the dominant height of the stand at a reference dominant diameter. Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the performance of SF and SI for site quality estimation in even-aged P. radiata stands. Methods: Dynamic equations derived with the Generalized Algebraic Difference Approach (GADA) from the Hossfeld IV base model were fitted to predict site quality with both SI and SF. SF predictions were compared with SI regarding variability within the same plot and consistency in site quality predictions, using the observed maximum mean annual volume increment (MAI) as a direct measure of site quality. Results: Both approaches showed good performance in model fitting and provided similar goodness-of-fit statistics and variability in the predictions. However, SI performed slightly stronger when related to MAI PB BMC SN 1286-4560 LK https://hdl.handle.net/10612/18820 UL https://hdl.handle.net/10612/18820 NO Molina-Valero, J. A., Diéguez-Aranda, U., Álvarez-González, J. G., Castedo-Dorado, F., & Pérez-Cruzado, C. (2019). Assessing site form as an indicator of site quality in even-aged Pinus radiata D. Don stands in north-western Spain. Annals of Forest Science, 76(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/S13595-019-0904-1 DS BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León RD 30-jun-2024