| Rucker
Index Background |
Robert
Leverett |
| Feb
21, 2006 08:41 PST |
Don,
The Rucker index concept is the creation of
Will Blozan, Colby
Rucker, and myself. I think the notion of averaging the heights
of the
ten tallest species originally came from Will in a telephone
conversation between us. After kicking it around in subsequent
telephonce conversations and e-mails, I suggested that we name
the idea
the Rucker index. Colby, himself, was shy and reluctant to use
the term
early on - although he applied the concept. As I recall, Lee was
supportive of the concept, as was Tom Diggins. However, one
scientist
friend of mine didn't see much value in it, so there wasn't 100%
backing
of the concept among the scientists on the list.
In more recent times, Ed Frank has made
excellent contributions to
the basic concept and the discussions around it, as has
mathematician
John Eichholz. BVP and Roman Dial have extended the idea to the
world at
large. The iterated form of the index extension is my invention,
albeit
one that has gained only partial acceptance. I still use the
iterated
index as a measure of the depth of tall trees across different
species
for a site.
I am thrilled and appreciative of Ed's
willingness to maintain an
organized list of Rucker indexes for us on the website. I am
working on
an extended index concept that I'll present when I see you in
March.
As it stands now, I basically leave it to the
PhDs to determine the
value of the Rucker index to a more in-depth ecological
understanding. I
tend to stay focused on improving the statistical descriptions
of forest
sites more for historical than strictly scientific purposes.
Bob
|
| RE:
Big tree finds/E-Journal |
Don
Bragg |
| Feb
22, 2006 05:35 PST |
Bob--
What you propose sounds perfect. I am interested in a discussion
of all
aspects of the Rucker Index, not just the ecological
implications. Even
if it only has meaning within ENTS, it is still a way to express
the
structural (and, to a lesser extent compositional) diversity of
a stand,
and provides a basis for comparing different areas.
Don Bragg
|
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