Abstract
The design of fertilization plans to cover large areas is complex, due to the considerable number of soil samples and soil fertility variables that must be taken into account. Classifying forest stands in groups according to their soil fertility (i.e. in nutrient management areas) can be very helpful to this respect and it is considered to be a first step in what has been called precision forestry. For this paper, we explore the capability of multivariate analyses of topsoil data to be used as tools for evaluating and classifying soil fertility. A case study from a teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) plantation in Costa Rica was used to evaluate and illustrate how to use multivariate analysis with these aims. A topsoil (0–20 cm) database with soil test results assembled by Panamerican Woods Ltd. was used. Different multivariate techniques [Principal Component Analysis, Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS), Cluster analysis] were performed and compared. Cluster analysis resulted as an appropriate tool for grouping soil samples into soil fertility classes. Therefore, it is considered as a promising tool which would help to design a fertilization program to meet the specific needs of each group of stands with relatively homogeneous soil fertility properties. NMDS is also a suitable complementary tool to graphically explore the similarities within groups and the differences between them. The application of procedures similar to those being reported may help to optimize the design of nutritional and fertilization plans across large forest plantations, by using multivariate analysis to establish fertilization regimes that are appropriate to groups of stands of more homogeneous soil fertility.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The teak plantations used as a study case in this work are both owned by the Panamerican Woods Ltd. company (hereafter ‘PAW’).
References
Arrouays D, Saby NPA, Thioulouse J, Jolivet C, Boulonne L, Ratié C (2011) Large trends in French topsoil characteristics are revealed by spatially constrained multivariate analysis. Geoderma 161:107–114
Ballard R (1984) Fertilization of plantations. In: Bowen GD, Nambiar EKS (eds) Nutrition of plantation forests. Academic Press, London, pp 327–360
Barker AV, Pilbeam DJ (2006) Handbook of plant nutrition. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL
Behling M (2009) Nutrição, partição de biomassa e crescimento de povoamentos de Teca em Tangará da Serra-MT. PhD thesis. Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brasil
Bertsch F (1998) La fertilidad de los suelos y su manejo. Asociación Costarricense de la Ciencia del Suelo, San José
Castrignanò A, Cherubini C, Giasi CI, Castore M, Di Mucci G, Molinari M (2005) Using multivariate geostatistics for describing spatial relationships among some soil properties. In: ISTRO conference, Brno, Czech Republic
De Camino RV, Alfaro MM, Sage LFM (2002) Teak (Tectona grandis) in Central America. Forest plantations working paper 19. Forest Resources Development Service, Forest Resources Division, FAO, Rome
Drechsel P, Zech W (1991) Foliar nutrient levels of broad-leaved tropical trees: a tabular review. Plant Soil 131(1):29–46
Evans J (2009) Planted forests: uses. Impacts and sustainability. CAB International, FAO, Rome
Fernández-Moya J, Murillo R, Portuguez E, Fallas JL, Ríos V, Kottman F, Verjans JM, Mata R, Alvarado A (2013) Nutrient concentrations age dynamics of teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) plantations in Central America. For Syst 22(1):123–133
Fölster H, Khanna PK (1997) Dynamics of nutrient supply in plantation soils. In: Nambiar EKS, Brown AG (eds) Management of soil, nutrients and water in tropical plantation forests. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Australia, pp 339–379
Fox TR (2000) Sustained productivity in intensively managed forest plantations. For Ecol Manag 138:187–202
FRA (2010) Global forest resources assessment 2010. FAO, Rome
Fu Q, Wang Z, Jiang Q (2010) Delineating soil nutrient management zones based on fuzzy clustering optimized by PSO. Math Comput Model 51:1299–1305
Gonçalves JLM, Barros NF, Nambiar EKS, Novais RF (1997) Soil and stand management for short-rotation plantations. In: Nambiar EKS, Brown AG (eds) Management of soil, nutrients and water in tropical plantation forests. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Australia, pp 379–418
Jaynes DB, Colvin TS, Kaspar TC (2005) Identifying potential soybean management zones from multi-year yield data. Comput Electron Agric 46:309–327
Kalähne R, Amin M, Sobottka J, Sauerbrey R (2000) Methods of multivariate data analysis applied to the investigation of fen soils. Anal Chim Acta 420:205–216
Kenkel NC (2006) On selecting an appropriate multivariate analysis. Can J Plant Sci 86:663–676
Lehto T, Ruuhola T, Dell B (2010) Boron in forest trees and forest ecosystems. For Ecol Manag 260:2053–2069
Liang KN, Pan YF, Liu WM (2005) Multi-factors fertilization trial of Tectona grandis in seedling stage. For Res 188(5):535–540
Miller HG (1981) Forest fertilization: some guiding concepts. Forestry 54(2):157–167
Minchin PR (1987) An evaluation of the relative robustness of techniques for ecological ordination. Theory Models Veg Sci 69:89–107
Morari F, Castrignanò A, Pagliarin C (2009) Application of multivariate geostatistics in delineating management zones within a gravelly vineyard using geo-electrical sensors. Comput Electron Agric 68:97–107
Nambiar EKS (1995) Sustained productivity of plantations: science and practice. Bosque 16(1):3–8
Oksanen J (2010) Cluster analysis: tutorial with R. University of Oulu, Oulu
Oksanen J (2011) Multivariate analysis of ecological communities in R: vegan tutorial. University of Oulu, Oulu
Ortega RA, Santibáñez OA (2007) Determination of management zones in corn (Zea mays L.) based on soil fertility. Comput Electron Agric 58:49–59
Pandey D, Brown C (2000) Teak: a global overview. Unasylva 51(2):1–15
Prasad R, Sah AKY, Bhandari AS (1986) Fertilizer trial in ten and twenty years old teak plantations in Nadhya Pradesh. J Trop For 2(1):47–52
R Development Core Team (2011) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria. http://www.r-project.org
Rennie PJ (1955) The uptake of nutrients by mature forest growth. Plant Soil 8(1):49–95
Robert PC (2002) Precision agriculture: a challenge for crop nutrition management. Plant Soil 247:143–149
Srivastava SK, Singh KP, Upadhyay RS (1986) Fine root growth dynamics in teak (Tectona grandis Linn F.). Can J Plant Sci 16:1360–1364
Theocharopoulos SP, Petrakis PV, Trikatsoula A (1997) Multivariate analysis of soil grid data as a soil classification and mapping tool: the case study of a homogeneous plain in Vagia, Viotia, Greece. Geoderma 77:63–79
Worrel R, Hampson A (1997) The influence of some forest operations on the sustainable management of forest soils—a review. Forestry 70(1):61–85
Yan L, Zhou S, Feng L, Hong-Yi L (2007) Delineation of site-specific management zones using fuzzy clustering analysis in a coastal saline land. Comput Electron Agric 56:174–186
Yay OD, Alagha O, Tuncel G (2008) Multivariate statistics to investigate metal contamination in surface soil. J Environ Manag 86:581–594
Zhou Z, Liang K, Xu D, Zhang Y, Huang G, Ma H (2012) Effects of calcium, boron and nitrogen fertilization on the growth of teak (Tectona grandis) seedlings and chemical property of acidic soil substrate. New For 43:231–243
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the collaboration of Panamerican Woods Ltd. in regard to providing access to the soil database. The authors also thank Paul Robertson, Adam Collins and the personnel of the Natural Resources Laboratory at CIA (UCR) for their help and comments about English language, manuscript format and for their assistance about the contents of this paper. One of the authors, M. Morales, is an employee of a forest plantation company (Panamerican Woods) but none of the authors show any kind of conflict of interests. The present paper was conducted under the MACOSACEN project, financed by PCI-AECID. The authors also thank to two anonymous reviewers for their comments to the present manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fernández-Moya, J., Alvarado, A., Morales, M. et al. Using multivariate analysis of soil fertility as a tool for forest fertilization planning. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 98, 155–167 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-014-9603-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-014-9603-3