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The Effect of Soil Characteristics on the Growth of Quaking Aspen in Northern Minnesota¹

ABSTRACT

A study was made of the relationship between soil properties and the growth of quaking aspen on 16 sample plots in northern Minnesota. The soils of this region show wide variations in their levels of replaceable bases and other associated fertility factors. The average annual growth of aspen on soils with high levels of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and nitrogen was over 4 times greater than the average annual growth on soils having a lower base status and nitrogen content. Analyses of foliar samples and aspen litter showed a close relationship between the supply of exchangeable bases in the soil on which the trees had grown and the level of calcium, magnesium, and potassium in the tissues of quaking aspen. Although the purposes of the study was primarily reconnaissance, the results show quite conclusively the extreme importance of soil characteristics in determining the quality of a site for aspen growth.

¹ Joint contribution from the School of Forestry, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., and the Lake States Forest Exp. Sta., St. Paul, Minn. Presented before Div. V-A, Soil Science Society of America, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 13, 1956.

² Assistant Professor of Forest Soils, Yale University, John A. Hartford Foundation Program in Forest Biology; and Research Foresters, Headwaters Forest Research Center, Lake States Forest Exp. Sta., respectively. The senior author was employed as a collaborator by the U. S. Forest Service to direct the collection and analysis of soil samples. Appreciation is expressed to Profs. H. J. Lutz and G. M. Furnival of the Yale Forestry School, and Prof. S. A. Wilde of the University of Wisconsin Soils Dept., for valuable comments and suggestions.

Received for publication January 14, 1957. Accepted for publication August 3, 1957.