Vermont Forest Indicators Dashboard

Stand Complexity

Score for 2017:
--/5
Long-Term Trend:
Scores are 
Forest stands can be composed of trees in a variety of sizes. Stands with greater complexity in tree sizes may be more resilient to disturbances and other stressors, and are often more productive1. They can also provide more varied habitat for wildlife and sustain higher biological diversity. Here, stand complexity is assessed using the Shannon-Weiner Index, using the of the proportion of trees per 5" diameter size class.The current year is scored as the difference between the data minimum -10% of the range and the data maximum +10% of the range, scaled to be between 0 and 1.
1Buongiorno, J., Dahir, S., Lu, H.C. and Lin, C.R., 1994. Tree size diversity and economic returns in uneven-aged forest stands. Forest Science, 40(1), pp.83-103.