Premium
Site Evaluation Studies in Red Pine Plantations in Michigan
Author(s) -
Eck W. A.,
Whiteside E. P.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1963.03615995002700060041x
Subject(s) - productivity , soil water , site index , environmental science , red pine , water content , pinus <genus> , red soil , forestry , soil science , geography , geology , biology , botany , geotechnical engineering , economics , macroeconomics
Soil productivity for planted red pine in lower Michigan was evaluated for 27 soil series in terms of dominant tree height at age 50 by aid of local site curves developed from actual growth measurements. In the presence of soil factors favoring adequate soil moisture supply and in the absence of soil factors which limited effective soil depth, the site index and growth rate of red pine was found to be rather uniform for many coarse‐ and moderately coarse‐textured soils. The inadequacy of a single set of site curves for the prediction of site productivity is discussed and separate sets of curves are presented for soils causing growth patterns deviating from the normal trend. The observed variations in height growth are associated with even greater relative differences in volume of wood produced. While variations in the quality of the wood products are also important in evaluating the productivity of forest sites, this aspect was not covered in the present study.