Growth of forest stands as analogue of production process in economic systems: E2E-model

An economic-ecological model (E2E-model) is proposed to describe the growth of plants. The process of growth of forest stand phytomass is considered within the E2E model as an analogue of the production process in economics. As a capital K in E2E models are considered non-photosynthetic phytomass components – stem, roots and branches. The role of labor L satisfies leaves (or needles), in which the process of photosynthesis occurs. Produced by the process of photosynthesis, energy is partially consumed for the current «consumption» of plants and partly «invested» and is transformed into a new phytomass, which is distributed between non-photosynthetic components of trees and their photosynthetic apparatus. The death of the trees in the stand during growth in the E2E model is considered as an analogue of capital depreciation (aging equipment, etc.) in the production process. For a complete description of the process of energy production and phytomass during photosynthesis entered the equation describing the synthesis of phytomass, describes the principles of distribution obtaining resources to meet the current energy needs of plants and for investments in new phytomass, the principles of investment allocation to reproduction «capital» – phytomass trunks roots and branches, and reproduction of «labor» – leaves or needles of trees. The proposed approach to the description of the growth in forest stand as an analogue of production may be regarded as competitive in relation to the autocatalytic growth models – different clones of Verhulst equation. In comparison with the autocatalytic growth models, E2E-growth models allow description of a number of phenomena observed in the forest (such as the death of trees) and not be explained in terms of autocatalytic models. Calculation of biomass of dead wood in the plantation opens the possibility of using the E2E model to describe the process of transformation of dead wood decomposers (fungi, bacteria, insects), as well as to determine the amount of forest fuel and the risk of forest fires.