Boundary-line approach to determine standards of nutrition for mature trees from spatial variation of growth and foliar nutrient concentrations in natural environments

Optimum nutritional standards for most tree species of eastern Canada are unknown. This can be attributed to the fact that controlled conditions typically required to develop such standards are impractical and prohibitive to obtain with mature trees. In this study, a boundary-line approach was developed for determining standards of optimum nutrition for forest trees based on natural variation in tree growth and nutritional status. The study site was located in the unmanaged forest of the Station de Biologie de l'Universite de Montreal, 90 km north of Montreal in the Lower Laurentians in Quebec. As many as 87 dominant to codominant sugar maples were sampled (foliage, increment cores) and measured (live-crown ratio, dendrometer bands) over the 1995-2001 period. Leaves were analyzed for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and manganese (Mn), and radial growth was converted to basal-area growth for use with the boundary-line approach to determine standards of nutrition. An algorithm was developed to select boundary points to be used in quadratic models describing the relationships between leaf-nutrient concentration and basal-area growth. Eight, 10, and 20 intervals (points) and an index based on the live-crown ratio of the trees to correct for forest density were tested. The application of the boundary line on raw data without correction for outliers or live-crown ratio generally produced models that were significant. Correction of outliers and the use of 10 intervals generally improved the models. Critical and optimum leaf N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Mn concentrations derived from the boundary-line approach were generally similar to published values. These results suggest that the approach is particularly well suited for the determination of critical and optimum nutrient concentrations and is less so for the determination of toxic concentrations.