Data used for this study are from a thinning essay established in stands of eucalypt carried out in the Copener Florestal enterprise, in the Northeast region of Bahia State, Brazil. Data were collected in 48 rectangular permanent plots, with an area of 2,600 m². The first thinning was made at 58 months. Various percentages of basal area reductions were used. The objective of the study was to build and quantitatively evaluate, through statistical tests, a growth and yield model by diameter class for thinned eucalypt stands. The theoretic redistribution of diameters by class was made through equations that include both linear and non-linear relations between the Weibull function parameters in a future age (beta2 and gamma2) and the parameters at the present age (beta1 and gamma1) and with some stand characteristics at the present and future age. Three equations systems were analyzed. The equations were analyzed through the adjusted determination coefficient, the correlation coefficient and the graphical analyses of the residues. Tests were performed to verify the compatibility of the systems and the identity among them. The selected system is compatible and assures the property that when the future age (I2) is equal to the present age (I1), the diametric distribution at the future age is equal to the diametric distribution at the present age. This system generated accurate and consistent estimates of growth and yield per diameter class.
Weibull distribution; thinning; growth; yield
