XVI International Botanical Congess
The goal of this investigation was to determine how basal area increment (area of wood produced annually at breast height, BAI) varies across an integrated moisture index (IMI) in four Ohio oak forests. IMI is a computer generated GIS model which combines edaphic and topographic features into a moisture index. Two-way ANOVA detected decadal BAI to vary significantly among sites and IMI classes (dry, intermediate, mesic). However, this relationship is not observed in all decades, and statistical power is low. Robust regression found a proportional loss in BAI that was significantly related to major climatic events such as drought (p < 0.001). We hypothesize that BAI is loosely associated with IMI, but additional factors such as climate, genetics, and local environment may have more importance on radial growth.