Non-destructive methods for assessing tree fiber length distributions in standing trees

TL;DR

This paper introduces an R package 'fiberLD' for estimating tree fiber length distributions in standing trees using non-destructive increment core data analyzed by optical fiber analyzers or microscopy, employing statistical modeling and maximum likelihood estimation.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel statistical framework and an R package for non-destructive assessment of tree fiber length distributions from increment core data.

Findings

Effective estimation of fiber length distributions using OFA data.

Implementation of maximum likelihood estimation for model parameters.

Comparison of distributional assumptions like gamma and log-normal.

Abstract

One of the main concerns of silviculture and forest management focuses on finding fast, cost-efficient and non-destructive ways of measuring wood properties in standing trees. This paper presents an R package \verb+fiberLD+ that provides functions for estimating tree fiber length distributions in the standing tree based on increment core samples. The methods rely on increment core data measured by means of an optical fiber analyzer (OFA) or measured by microscopy. Increment core data analyzed by OFAs consist of the cell lengths of both cut and uncut fibers (tracheids) and fines (such as ray parenchyma cells) without being able to identify which cells are cut or if they are fines or fibers. The microscopy measured data consist of the observed lengths of the uncut fibers in the increment core. A censored version of a mixture of the fine and fiber length distributions is proposed to fit the OFA data, under distributional assumptions. Two choices for the assumptions of the underlying density functions of the true fiber (fine) lengths of those fibers (fines) that at least partially appear in the increment core are considered, such as the generalized gamma and the log normal densities. Maximum likelihood estimation is used for estimating the model parameters for both the OFA analyzed data and the microscopy measured data.