bestånd

Bestånd is a Swedish term used in ecology, forestry, and related disciplines to denote either a population or stock of organisms in a defined area, or a forest stand. In ecology and wildlife management, bestånd refers to the number or density of individuals of a species within a specified geographic boundary, often assessed in terms of abundance, age and sex structure, genetic diversity, and viability. Monitoring bestånd helps inform conservation, harvest quotas, and management plans.

In forestry, ett skogbestånd or ett trädbestånd describes a contiguous grouping of trees that share similar age, species composition, and site conditions, occupying a defined area. A bestånd is the basic unit for forest planning, assessment of volume and growth, thinning schedules, and sustainable timber yield. Forest inventories commonly report metrics such as stand density, volume per hectare, age class distribution, and site index to characterize the stand.

The term can also appear in broader contexts to mean any stock or inventory of items, such as household goods or biological resources, but its most common uses are ecological-population or forestry-specific. Variants include beståndsstatus (status of a population or stand) and beståndsplanering (stand planning) in forestry.

See also: population dynamics, forest stand, timber yield, inventory.