Reference charts for young stands — A quantitative methodology for assessing tree performance

Reference charts have long been used in the medical field for quantitative clinical assessment of juvenile development by plotting distribution quantiles for a selected attribute (e.g., height) against age for specified peer populations. Wepropose that early stand dynamics is an area of study that could benefit from the descriptions and analyses offered by similar references for various tree measures. Reference charts provide a flexible quantitative framework that would complement traditional methods for assessing tree development. In young, mixed stands, competitive dynamics are, in part, a function of intraspecific, interspecific, and temporal variation in height development. A suite of reference charts can explicitly describe each of these, offering additional context and potentially greater insight into the complex development patterns of young trees. We illustrate this possibility and potential applications by constructing height–age reference charts for several tree species in young, mixed stands within the Missouri Ozarks.