Comparison of Soil and Vegetation Characteristics of Six Upland Forest Habitat Types in North Central Wisconsin

Habitat type classification is a natural classification system that uses the co-occurrence of ground flora and tree species to formulate taxa that can be used to identify sites which support similar plant communities or associations at climax. In 1988 a habitat type classification was developed for northern Wisconsin forests, but scientists have yet to determine whether important soil and vegetation characteristics are similar within a habitat type and if they exhibit consistent differences among habitat types. We compared the soil and vegetation characteristics of 24 sites from the 6 major habitat types in north central Wisconsin. Total soil nitrogen and organic matter concentrations, soil available potassium, soil silt fraction, and soil water-holding capacity all generally increased in the order: Quercus-Acer/Epigaea (QAE) < Acer-Quercus/Vaccinium (AQV) < Pinus/Maianthemum-Vaccinium (PMV) < Acer/Vaccinium-Viburnum (AVVib) < Acer-Tsuga/Dryopteris (ATD) < Acer/Viola-Osmorhiza (AViO). In addition, we observed positive trends (QAE < AQV < PMV < AVVib < ATD < AViO) in leaf area index (leaf area per unit ground area )and forest net primary productivity, both of which are expressions of total resource availability. North. J. Appl. For. 15(2):69-76.