Modeling the Effect of Midrotation Fertilization on Specific Gravity of Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L.)

摘要

Ring specific gravity, earlywood and latewood specific gravity, and percent latewood were measured on cores collected at breast height from a thinned and fertilized midrotation loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantation in the lower Coastal Plain of North Carolina. The study was laid out in a randomized complete block design receiving four levels of nitrogen (N) fertilizer in 1984: 000 (control), 112, 224, and 336 kg/ha plus 28 kg/ha of phosphorus with each treatment. A consistent pattern of response was observed in latewood specific gravity (LWSG) after the application of different levels of fertilizer and used as a variable for modeling. The LWSG profiles of unfertilized trees followed a nonlinear relation with ring number from pith. A three-parameter asymptotic function was used to explain the LWSG profile of unfertilized trees with ring number as a covariate. Application of N reduced LWSG and was modeled using a two-parameter response function with year since fertilization as a covariate and separate parameter estimates for each fertilization level. On the basis of the model, the magnitude of maximum cumulative response was -0.025, -0.049, and -0.074 attained at 3.7, 1.9, and 0.8 years after fertilization for the 112, 224, and 336 kg/ha treatments, respectively. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]