Multilevel Nonlinear Mixed-Effects Models for the Modeling of Earlywood and Latewood Microfibril Angle

By L. Jordon, Richard F. Daniels, A. Clark, R. He. Forestry sciences, 2005

64 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Earlywood and latewood microfibril angle (MFA) was determined at 1-millimeter intervals from disks at 1.4 meters, then at 3-meter intervals to a height of 13.7 meters, from 18 loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) trees grown in southeastern Texas. A modified three-parameter logistic function with mixed effects is used for modeling earlywood and latewood MFA. By making the parameters of the logistic function linear functions of height, a three-dimensional model was developed that describes the changes of earlywood and latewood MFA within the tree. A first-order autoregressive correlation structure and a variance model corresponding to a variance covariate given by the fitted values for each wood type, but in which the proportionality constant differs according to the level of wood type, was identified as the within-group correlation and variance structures. Cross-validation was used to determine model accuracy and precision. The methods of model development including determination of the height structure, which parameters should be considered random or fixed, determination of an appropriate variance-covariance structure, and prediction are addressed. Model performance was evaluated utilizing informative statistics including likelihood ratio tests (LRTs), Akaike information criterion (AIC), and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). FOR. SCI. 51(4):357–371.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Environmental Engineering, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/46ec59d40d253ba1f617c7afc38cd52e3dae145f

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4. P. West
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In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. Ram P. Sharma
2. Alexis Achim
3. P. West
4. Barry Gardiner
5. David Auty
6. A. Cameron
7. Curtis L. Vanderschaaf
8. Yuqing Yang

Citations in the corpus

• Growing Plantation Forests (2010, background): “In tree stems, the angle is often greater nearer the centre of the stem and declines towards the outer parts of the stem cross-section (Hillis 1984; Evans et al. 2000; Jordan et al. 2005).”
• Models for predicting microfibril angle variation in Scots pine (2012, methodology): “…of MFA are generally higher near the pith (typically 25° to 30° in the first few growth rings) and decline rapidly in the first 10 to 15 growth rings before approaching a more stable value (≈10° to 12°) in the mature wood (e.g. Barnett and Bonham 2004; Jordan et al. 2005; Alteyrac et al. 2006).”
• A multilevel individual tree basal area increment model for aspen in boreal mixedwood stands (2009, methodology): “Jordan et al. (2005) developed an earlywood and latewood microfibril angle model using a multilevel nonlinear mixed-model approach with random effects modeled at the tree and disk levels.”
• Nonlinear mixed-effects crown width models for individual trees of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) in south-central China (2013, background): “Their inherent flexibility allows for developmen t of a unique variance–covariance structure , which is restricted in traditional nonlinear regressio n (Jordan et al., 2005).”