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Abstract

The relationship between soil properties and forest site quality was investigated. The site quality functions currently used fail in predicting variations within regions and the purpose of this study was to evaluate if the local accuracy in forest resource assessments could benefit from the use of geological and geochemical data. The investigation was conducted in mid-Sweden within two geological regions. The mineralogy of the parent material (C horizon) was estimated using a method for normative mineralogical assessment and the soil chemistry was determined for five soil horizons. The importance of individual minerals for site quality was different within the two geological regions. Functional relations were established between the properties in different soil horizons and site index. The functions between mineralogy and site index were improved by splitting the data according to the geologically different regions. The mineralogy explained 37-61% of the variation in site index, whereas the properties in the upper soil profile (O-B horizon) related more strongly to site index (18-80%). Stronger relations could be established in the mineralogically rich than in the mineralogically poor area. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

soil-site study; soil chemistry; normative analysis; forest site index

Published in

Forest Ecology and Management
2002, volume: 170, number: 1-3, pages: 75-88
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

  • Stendahl, Johan

    • Department of Forest Soils, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • Olsson, Mats

    • Department of Forest Soils, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • Holmgren, Peter

    • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

UKÄ Subject classification

Geology
Soil Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(01)00778-2

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/52069