MYRLIN
MYRLIN is an acronym for Methods of Yield Regulation with Limited Information. It was a project undertaken by the Oxford Forestry Institute under the UK Forest Research Programme from 1999 to 2002. I was involved as the lead technical consultant, developing software tools and a website for their documentation and delivery. The original system can be seen at www.myrlin.org.
The central thesis of the MYRLIN project was that mean increments for tree species in tropical rainforest could be approximately estimated, for planning purposes, from typical species size and the ecological guild of the species. The diagram at the left shows the relationship between increment (y-axis), species size expressed as the 95% percentile of the diameter distribution (x-axis), and ecological status. The empirical basis for this approach is shown on the MYRLIN website, and discussed in Alder et al (2002), cited below.
The following publications in the Bibliography relate to MYRLIN:
Alder, D; Oavika, F; Sanchez, M; Silva, JNM; Van der Hout, P; Wright, HL (2002) A comparison of species growth rates from four moist tropical forest regions using increment-size ordination. International Forestry Review 4(3)196-205. (PDF, 665 kb)
Alder, D (1999) Some issues in the yield regulation of moist tropical forests. Paper to workshop on "Humid and semi-humid tropical forest yield regulation with minimal data" held at CATIE, Costa Rica, 5-9 July 1999. Oxford Forestry Institute Occasional Papers 52, pp 14-27. (PDF, 243 kb)
2009 update
MYRLIN is no longer supported by the UK Forestry Research Programme, although there remain many users around the world who have and are using the toolkit as a route to sustainable forest mangement to FSC and similar certification standards. I have accordingly adopted the www.myrlin.org website myself and host it as a voluntary activity. If you are interested to participate in and support this project, or would simply like further information, please email me.