Bob, One question to consider is how uniform is the amount of radial growth in the trunk from the base to the top? Does it thicken the same amount across the entire surface of the tree? Since the evidence indicates that the basic shape of the trunk changes over time, that means that the width of the rings must differ, or at least can differ between the top and bottom of the tree. If the base rings were growing wider faster than the rings at the top, then the form factor would go down. everything else being equal. What more likely happens is that the ratio of height increase to radial growth decreases over time causing the form factor to shift, but that really doesn't tell us much about the thickness of the new shell of wood produced at various heights up and down the tree. The thickness at the top could be the same as at the bottom, or the bottom could grow radially faster than the top, so long as that effect is offset the lowering in the ratio of height to radial growth. In most cases unless there is an extremely detailed model of the trunk shape the amount of new growth could be overshadowed by the error in calculating the volume of the tree, and by extension the form factor. The other source of new wood is in the increase of height of the tree which is not directly related to the increase in ring width.
Ed Frank Join me at the Primal Forests - Ancient Trees Community at: http://primalforests.ning.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
