Abstract
The analysis of a tree's annual growth rings can provide a great deal of information about the environment in which the tree has grown. In this paper we propose statistical methodology for analysing the incremental growth of sugar maple sampled throughout southern and central Ontario, by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Two trees, ranging in age from 75 to 150 years, were sampled from each of 42 stands in 6 regions. The data were analysed using a mixed linear model, incorporating age of tree, region, year, a year by region interaction and average monthly air temperature and total seasonal precipitation for the current year and the previous year, as fixed effects. Stand and tree were regarded as random effects and the repeated annual growth measurements on a tree were assumed to follow a first order autoregressive process.
Keywords
specific volume increment, dendrochronology, mixed linear model, variance component, autoregressive process
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Allen, O. Brian; Ryan, Daniel A.J.; and McLaughlin, David L.
(1992).
"THE ANALYSIS OF TREE RING CHRONOLOGIES USING A MIXED LINEAR MODEL,"
Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture.
https://doi.org/10.4148/2475-7772.1402
THE ANALYSIS OF TREE RING CHRONOLOGIES USING A MIXED LINEAR MODEL
The analysis of a tree's annual growth rings can provide a great deal of information about the environment in which the tree has grown. In this paper we propose statistical methodology for analysing the incremental growth of sugar maple sampled throughout southern and central Ontario, by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Two trees, ranging in age from 75 to 150 years, were sampled from each of 42 stands in 6 regions. The data were analysed using a mixed linear model, incorporating age of tree, region, year, a year by region interaction and average monthly air temperature and total seasonal precipitation for the current year and the previous year, as fixed effects. Stand and tree were regarded as random effects and the repeated annual growth measurements on a tree were assumed to follow a first order autoregressive process.
