Trembling aspen site index in relation to environmental measures of site quality at two spatial scales

Abstract

To evaluate the variation in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) productivity at a large geographic scale, we examined the relationships between site index and environmental factors from 142 even-aged, fully stocked stands located on a variety of sites across interior British Columbia. Site index was derived from stem analysis and the environmental measures included climate surrogates (latitude, longitude, and elevation), biogeoclimatic zone, slope– aspect, actual soil moisture regime (SMR), and soil nutrient regime (SNR). The spatial gradients (latitude, longitude, and elevation), slope–aspect, SMR, and SNR affected aspen site index, but their relationships greatly varied with biogeoclimatic zone. At the provincial scale, these relationships were weaker than on the zonal scale. Among the models developed for predicting aspen site index, we recommend the zone-specific all-factor model for application, which explained 82% of the variation of site index and provided unbiased and precise predictions.