standingTree-methods: Methods for 'standingTree' Object Construction in Package...

In sampSurf: Sampling Surface Simulation for Areal Sampling Methods

Description

There are currently two available methods for the generic standingTree. These methods generate objects of class "standingTree" that are valid objects. This is the preferred method for generating such objects, rather then using new.

Methods

signature(object = "missing")

This constructor will be used when the signature argument is "missing." When object is missing, the taper data is generated from the internal taper function between the buttDiam (derived internally from taper data) and topDiam diameters for the tree, in nSegs sections. The taper function used is documented in “The Stem Class” vignette and references for "standingTree." The following arguments are part of the function call; all arguments with the same names as class slots are also defined in the class definition (and may be stored differently than the arguments).

usage...

standingTree(
             dbh = 20,                     #cm
             topDiam = 0,                  #cm
             height = 15,                  #meters
             nSegs = 20,
             solidType = 3,                #must have some taper model for butt diam
             treeVol = NULL,
             surfaceArea = NULL,
             biomass = NA,
             vol2wgt = NA,
             carbon = NA,
             wgt2carbon = NA,
             centerOffset = c(x=0, y=0),   #tree base-pith center offset
             species = '',
             treeID = paste('tree',.StemEnv$randomID(),sep=':'),
             description = NULL,
             userExtra = NULL,
             units = 'metric',
             spUnits = CRS(projargs=as.character(NA)),
             runQuiet = TRUE,
             ... )

• dbh: The breast-height diameter. For object creation, units are in either inches or cm. Internally, within the object, they are stored in the same units as height: feet or meters, depending on the value for units.

• topDiam: The tree diameter at the tip with same units as dbh.

• height: The tree height in meters or feet, depending on units.

• nSegs: The number of height segements to be generated from the taper function for the "missing" signature. Note that there will be nSegs+1 diameter measurements for the tree taper.

• solidType: The type of solid for the default taper equation; the range is from 1 to 10, with 1 being a neiloid, 2 a cone and 3+ a paraboloid. When the object argument is missing it defaults to a value of 3.

• treeVol: The tree volume if precomputed, otherwise, if NULL, the tree volume will be computed from the taper volume equation or Smalian's formula if solidType=NULL.

• surfaceArea: The tree surface area if precomputed, otherwise, if NULL, the tree surface area will be computed from the taper equation or spline approximation.

• biomass: The tree stem woody biomass if precomputed, otherwise, if NA, the tree biomass will be computed from the volume and vol2wgt conversion.

• vol2wgt: The volume to weight conversion factor. If NA and biomass is passed, then it will be computed.

• carbon: The tree carbon content if precomputed, otherwise, if NA, the carbon content will be computed from the biomass and wgt2carbon conversion.

• wgt2carbon: The weight to carbon conversion factor. If NA and carbon is passed, then it will be computed.

• centerOffset: The tree's center position (pith at dbh) that will be used for the location slot. This is a vector of length two with names "x" and "y"; note that it can be length three with a "z" coordinate, but it is not used anywhere currently.

• species: Some species identifier as a character string.

• treeID: Each tree should have its own unique identifier that is used in constructing the Polygons object for the perimeter. This becomes very important when combining individual trees into a population or collection via the container class "standingTrees." If nothing is supplied, a random ID is generated.

• description: A character vector description of the tree.

• userExtra: Anything else that one wants to carry along with the tree.

• units: Either “English” or “metric”. These must be conformable with the projection in spUnits.

• spUnits: A valid CRS object specifying the Coordinate Reference System. This defaults to NA, which means you want to use your own user-defined system, say for a sample plot where the tree has been located in the field.

• runQuiet: TRUE: no feedback during object creation; FALSE: prints some information along the way.

• ... : Other arguments to be passed along.

signature(object = "data.frame")

When object is a "data.frame," then it is assumed that the data frame contains the taper data in the form of diameters and heights (as columns with labels "diameter" and "height", respectively), with diameters in the same units as height. All arguments except those listed below are the same as in the previous constructor...

usage...

standingTree(object
             solidType = NULL,             #defaults to null for passed taper
             treeVol = NULL,
             surfaceArea = NULL,
             biomass = NA,
             vol2wgt = NA,
             carbon = NA,
             wgt2carbon = NA,
             centerOffset = c(x=0, y=0),   #tree base-pith center offset
             species = '',
             treeID = paste('tree',.StemEnv$randomID(),sep=':'),
             description = NULL,
             userExtra = NULL,
             units = 'metric',
             spUnits = CRS(projargs=as.character(NA)),
             runQuiet = TRUE,
             ...)

• object: A data frame (see note below).

• solidType: NULL is the default, because it is assumed that the taper data are from field measurements or have been generated from a different taper equation where this would not be a meaningful parameter. One can therefore have an educated guess about the genesis of taper data within an object by querying this slot in the completed object.

• treeVol: The tree volume if precomputed, otherwise, if NULL, the tree volume will be computed from the taper data frame using Smalian's method.

Note

It may not be immediately apparent how the taper data in the data frame is to be structured if you have this data available either from measurements, or from a different taper equation. The best way to check this out is to simply create a dummy "standingTree" object and then show or print it for a summary, which will show the first few records of the structure. If that is not enough, then you can look at the structure with the @ operator applied to the object's taper slot. Please also see the vignette mentioned above. Remember, the diameters in the taper data frame are expected to be in the same units as length for a data frame.

Author(s)

Jeffrey H. Gove

See Also

The "standingTree" class and the standingTree generic.

Examples

#create a standingTree object and show it
st = standingTree(dbh=20, solidType=2.1)
summary(st)

sampSurf documentation built on March 5, 2021, 3:01 p.m.