Description of Tree Distribution Patterns and Their Development Through Marked Gibbs Processes

• Published in: Biometrical journal Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 457 - 470
• Main Author: Degenhardt, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin WILEY-VCH Verlag Berlin GmbH 01-07-1999; WILEY‐VCH Verlag Berlin GmbH; Wiley-VCH
• Subjects: Applications; Biology, psychology, social sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Forest stands; Marked Gibbs process; Mathematics; Probability and statistics; Probability theory and stochastic processes; Sciences and techniques of general use; Spatial statistics; Statistics; Stochastic processes; Tree distribution pattern; Pair correlation function; Pair potential; Tree(graph); Tree distribution pattern; Potential function; Gibbs sampling; Gibbs process; Marked process; Time distribution; Point process; Tree; Correlation function; Interaction potential; Pattern analysis
• ISSN: 0323-3847; 1521-4036
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-4036(199907)41:4<457::AID-BIMJ457>3.0.CO;2-Z

Tree distribution patterns in forest stands can be considered as marked point processes in the plane. Gibbs processes are a natural tool for modelling such point processes because the interaction between trees can be taken into account and described by pair potential functions. Consequently, tree distribution patterns can be characterized with few parameters and be compared quantitatively.
By means of forest stand examples it is shown how these parametric models can be used for the analysis of tree distribution patterns at different time points.