Two-year tree growth patterns investigated from monthly girth records using dendrometer bands in a wet evergreen forest in India

With the aim of characterizing tree growth patterns, this paper reexamines the growth data of 100 selected trees belonging to 24 species that were rec orded monthly in a 0.2-ha plot of a wet evergreen forest in the Western Cha ts of India during the period 1980-82 using dendrometer bands. The mean gro wth profile, combining all of the selected trees, shelved: (a) a significan tly lower annual growth rate during the second year of survey which seemed to be negatively related to monsoon precipitation; (b) significant intra-an nual growth variation clearly related to the regular alternation between a period of heavy rain and a quite long dry season of the monsoon climatic re gime. Analysis of the variability of the individual smoothed growth profile s representing the 2-y trend of the growth data showed that: (a) the mean g rowth rate depended on a combination of an intrinsic endogenous variable (t he structural class grouping species according to their maximum size), a tr ee size variable (tree diameter at breast height, dbh) and a neighbourhood variable (the number of taller neighbours in a 10-m radius); (b) the sudden change in growth rate from one year to the other was not predictable using these variables. The amplitude of the seasonal variations, investigated fr om the detrended growth profiles, appeared to be dependent on a combination of tree dbh and the number of taller neighbours in a 10-m radius. A co-ine rtia analysis of the smoothed and the detrended growth profiles indicated t hat the trees with fast growth also exhibited high seasonal variation. It i s suggested that fast growing trees are those with favourable crown positio ns, which are consequently subject to high transpiration rates due to radia tion and wind exposure.