A merchantable volume system for major pine species in El Salto, Durango (Mexico)

A compatible volume system for the major pine species in El Salto, Durango (Mexico) was developed from data corresponding to 1930 destructively sampled trees. Several well-known taper functions were evaluated and compared against the model selected in a previous study of these pine species in the same area. Appropriate statistical procedures were used in model fitting to account for the problems of autocorrelation and multicollinearity that are associated with the construction of taper functions. A compatible segmented model best described the experimental data and was found to be better than the previously selected model. It is therefore recommended for estimating diameter at a specific height, height to a specific diameter, merchantable volume, and total volume for the five species analyzed. The non-linear extra sum of squares method indicated differences in species-specific taper functions. A different taper function should therefore be used for each pine species.