EVALUATION OF THE USE OF THE DOMINANT HEI GHT AS A MEASURE OF SITE QUALITY FOR ARAUCARIA-ANGUSTIFOLIA (BERT) O-KTZE

In studies relating environmental factors (among them the edafic) and forest productivity, the dominant height is actually used as an expres sion of a forest stand growth. There is little information in Latin Am erican, about the performance of the latter variables as an indicator for site quality, particularly when comparing different plantation den sities, the dominant height at different plantation densities together with the degree of association between the dominant height and the vo lumetric production, was evaluated from data of an essay begun in 1971 in the Argentinian province of Misiones. Analysis of variance of domi nant height on (10) ten treatments (initial densities) corresponding t o data collected at 6, 8, 9, 11 and 19 years of age, was effectuated. The correlation analysis permitted the evaluation of the degree of ass ociation between the dominant height and total volume of each experime ntal plot. For all ages evaluated, the effects of initial density over dominant height was statistically not significant. The correlation co efficient of the sample between dominant height and total volume was 0 .94, that value being statistically significant. These results indicat e that dominant height can be an adequate variable for the site qualit y evaluation.