Tree equations and climatic variables effect in the growth of planted forest of Calophyllum brasiliense in Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Understanding the effect of climatic variations in tree growth is fundamental in the scenario of climate change. The objectives of this work were to adjust allometric equations to estimate volume and aboveground biomass in a planted forest of Guanandi (Calophyllum brasiliense), a species that has a large potential to be planted in tropical regions because of its potential high growth and its wood quality and to evaluate the influence of meteorological monthly seasonality on its growth. Volumetric was well adjusted with Schumacher-Hall model, with good fit indicators (R²adj = 0.89 and Syx% = 9.74) and both for estimating the aboveground biomass and the plant compartments (leaves, branches and stem) the best fit model was Meyer's. The total wood volume obtained was 100 m3 ha− 1 and an average annual increment for the stand of 10.3 m3 ha− 1 year− 1 at 9.8 years of age. It was observed that the growth of C. brasiliense trees was influenced by meteorological seasonality, and the variation in its growth was better correlated with the subset of the variables maximum and minimum temperature, potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration and water deficit. From a practical point of view, the study shows that ongoing climate change is going to affect wood growth in this tropical region of Brazil, reducing the potencial of this tropical specie in Carbon sequestration.