Hh. Bartelink et al., APPLICABILITY OF THE RADIATION-USE EFFICIENCY CONCEPT FOR SIMULATING GROWTH OF FOREST STANDS, Agricultural and forest meteorology, 88(1-4), 1997, pp. 169-179
The aim of the study was to estimate the radiation-use efficiency (RUE
) and investigate its suitability as a tool to simulate growth of mixe
d forest stands. We applied a mechanistic forest growth model (FORGRO)
, (1) to investigate differences between RUE of deciduous broadleaved
trees (beech) and evergreen conifers (Douglas-fir), and (2) to analyze
the effects of stand structure and stand composition on RUE in mixed
species forests. With FORGRO, RUE under optimum growing conditions was
calculated. Based on comparison of net primary production (NPP) rates
estimated by FORGRO with data from the literature, we concluded that
using FORGRO to estimate RUE was legitimate. Sensitivity analysis show
ed that RUE is relatively insensitive to changes in values of photosyn
thetic parameters. Temperature had some effect, depending on the speci
es. Hence, species-specific responses to temperature can be expected t
o affect competitive interrelationships in case of climate change. Tho
ugh RUE showed large daily variability, RUE derived from cumulative ab
sorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and NPP was virtuall
y constant throughout the year and over a 10-yr period, in both monosp
ecies and mixed-species stands. It was concluded that the RUE-concept
is a useful tool in simulating forest growth. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc
e B.V.