Regional Volume Table for Andaman Padauk (<i>Pterocarpus dalbergioides</i>)

Abstract

Andaman Padauk ( Pterocarpus dalbergioides Roxb.) belong to the Fabaceae family, endemic to the Andaman Islands. The suitable regional volume tables for Pterocarpus dalbergioides was constructed and presented in this paper. Sample trees covered the entire diameter range and in turn dbh of all the sample trees ranged from 61.5 to 90.5 cm and height ranged from 7.85 to 25.7 m. Five different models viz., straight line, polynomial, logarithemic, power and exponential were tried using dbh, height and d 2 h as independent variables (x). Among different growth parameters used for establishing prediction models, dbh and d 2 h proved to be more reliable independent variables for predicting the wood volume. Among the different equations tried, the power equation proved superior to other equations as evident from its greater values of co-efficient of determination (R 2 = 0.827) as well as from lesser values of standard error (SE = 0.138) and Furnival Index value (FI = 0.043) for stem wood of Pterocarpus dalbergioides. Prediction equation y = 1.225x 0.789 was used to calculate the stem wood volume of Pterocarpus dalbergioides . The stem wood volume ranged from 3.582 m 3 to 29.358 m 3 per tree when diameter ranges from 60-95 cm and height ranges from 7-37 m. The identified best-fit regression models for predicting stem wood volume of Pterocarpus dalbergioides will be useful to researchers and plantation managers in assessing productivity estimation by non-destructive method.