Understanding the relationship of stand structural complexity and forest management is relevant to create desired stand structures by adapting management strategies under changing disturbance scenarios and climatic conditions. To overcome difficulties in differentiating between strict categories of silvicultural practices and to describe the impact of forest management more appropriate, we used a continuous indicator of forest management intensity (ForMI). The ForMI consists of three components including volumes of natural deadwood, non-native tree species and harvested trees. There are a great number of approaches to quantify stand structure; here we used the recently established stand structural complexity index (SSCI) which represents a density-dependent as well as vertical measure of complexity based on the distribution of points in 3D space inventoried by terrestrial laser scanning. The data collection took place in 135 one-hectare plots managed under close-to-nature forest management (CTNFM) located in the Black Forest, Germany. We build generalized additive models to test the relationship of the SSCI with the ForMI. The model results did not prove a significant relationship between the SSCI and the ForMI, but components of the ForMI showed significant relationships to the SSCI. Our results indicate that the relationship between stand structural complexity and forest management intensity is, while plausible, not trivial to demonstrate. We conclude that forest managers have a relatively wide range of choices in CTNFM to adapt forests within a similar range of management intensity as presented here to future challenges, since management intensity does not change the forest structure drastically.

了解林分结构复杂性与森林管理之间的关系对于通过在不断变化的干扰情景和气候条件下调整管理策略来创建所需的林分结构至关重要。为了克服区分严格的造林做法的困难并更恰当地描述森林经营的影响，我们使用了森林经营强度的连续指标（ForMI）。ForMI由三个部分组成，包括天然枯木，非本地树木和采伐树木的体积。有很多方法可以量化展位结构。在这里，我们使用了最近建立的林分结构复杂性指数（SSCI），该指数基于地面激光扫描所盘点的3D空间中点的分布，代表了密度相关的以及垂直性的复杂性度量。数据收集在德国黑森林的近自然森林管理（CTNFM）下管理的135公顷一公顷土地上进行。我们建立通用的加性模型来测试SSCI与ForMI的关系。模型结果并未证明SSCI和ForMI之间存在显着关系，但是ForMI的组件显示出与SSCI之间存在显着关系。我们的结果表明，林分结构复杂性与森林经营强度之间的关系虽然合理，但并非微不足道。