Modelling the economically viable wood in the crown of European beech trees

We showed that the European beech crowns could be clustered into 3 groups differing in their wood volume distribution. The economically viable wood volume in the crown significantly depended on this grouping parameter as well as diameter at breast height (DBH). By contrast, the total amount of wood in the crown only depended on DBH. The differing viable wood volumes in the crowns were thus explained by different wood distributions and not by differing total crown wood volume. To make the results applicable in practice forestry, the modelling results were used to develop a regression formula able to predict the economically viable wood volume in the crown depending on the DBH and the crown type. As the crown type can also be predicted via measurable tree covariates, the regression model of the viable wood volume in the crown can be used as a support tool for the management of European beech stands. Sensitivity analysis quantifies how harvest revenues and costs translate into different viable tree volume.