Growth Visualization of Chinese Fir Based on Improved 3-PG Model

There is growing worldwide interest in the use of 3-PG model as tool for forest management. It requires only readily available site, climatic data and genetic characteristics of trees as inputs and predicts the time-course of stand development on a monthly basis in a form familiar to the forest manager. 3-PG is a stand-level model of forest growth, without its study of physiological ecology process of one tree. In this study, the growth simulation of signal tree can be built by the developed 3-PG model, and then receiving the whole forest growth. The simulated results of DBH, tree height were then compared with the corresponding observed values. The simulated results of DBH, tree height, stem biomass and stand volume were then compared with the corresponding observed values. The significant positive correlations were found between the simulations and observations (P < 0.001), where the simulated values could explain above 80% variation of the observed. This improved model was proved with high accuracy and reliability to simulate the growth of signal Chinese fir tree and act as an useful tool for the management of Chinese fir stands. Finally, On the basis of the growth parameters of simulation and prediction, this paper also represented the tree-dimensional stand spatial profile and its growth by visualization technology for validating results and aiding decision-making. And the visualization of output parameters also realistically represented the pure stand scene of stand scale.