A stand can be defined as an area of sufficient homogeneity with regard to vegetation, soils, topography, microclimate, and past disturbance history to be treated as a single unit. Most stand level studies examine areas less than one hectare. Stand level studies provide much greater detail on specific processes because many important environmental factors are homogenous within a stand. However, the interactions between contrasting stands and the potentially large differences between contrasting stands on a landscape preclude an accurate representation of ecosystem level processes. While it is possible to scale up stand level data, there is a high degree of uncertainty in doing so.

Stand scale studies employ a combination of biomass, litter, and solid-phase soil sampling to determine nutrient pools, and collection and quantification of ecosystem waterflows (e.g., precipitation, throughfall, stemflow, and soil solutions) to determine nutrient fluxes. From this basic framework, additional measurements, such as decomposition and mineralization/immobilization rates, may be determined to address specific processes. Thus, a much greater understanding of individual processes is possible with stand scale investigations. The trade-off for greater understanding of individual processes is that stand/plot studies are much more labor intensive and costly than simply measuring inputs and outputs from a watershed.

The effects of management practices and natural perturbations are often simulated by manipulation of plots and comparison of these plots to reference plots. These plots may be replicated providing a measure of spatial variability which is not possible from watershed scale studies which integrates all spatial variability into a single number. Since a single watershed may contain several contrasting stands, soils, hydrologic flowpaths, and distinct microclimates, it is not always possible to predict watershed scale response from stand level investigations. Thus, the most powerful approach is to couple watershed level investigations that integrate all processes and all spatial variability within a watershed with stand/plot level studies to ascertain process-level detail on the importance of individual processes.