vuosikasvu

Vuosikasvu is a term used in botany and forestry to describe the amount of growth a plant or tree achieves during a single calendar year. In forestry, vuosikasvu is most often discussed as the increase in diameter at breast height (DBH) or, less commonly, as height growth. It can also refer to the annual increase in above-ground biomass or timber volume. Growth can be estimated from repeated measurements over consecutive years or inferred from tree-ring data obtained from increment cores, in which each ring typically represents one year of growth. Tree-ring analysis, or dendrochronology, provides a historical record of annual growth and is widely used to reconstruct past site conditions and climatic effects on growth.

At stand level, vuosikasvu denotes the average annual growth per unit area, for example cubic metres per hectare per year, and serves as a key metric for assessing productivity, planning thinning operations, and modeling timber yield and rotation length. The magnitude of yearly growth varies with species, site quality, age, climate, soil moisture, and competition.

Commonly, growth is not constant; young stands usually exhibit rapid growth that slows as stands age and approach maturation. Accurate estimation requires consistent measurement methods and, when using ring data, proper cross-dating to align rings across samples.

See also: dendrochronology, diameter at breast height, growth models, forest productivity.