Climate-sensitive height–age models for top height trees in natural and reclaimed oil sands stands in Alberta, Canada

Climate sensitive height-age models were developed for top height trees of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) in natural and reclaimed oil sands stands. Both stem analysis data collected from the Athabasca oil sands region in northern Alberta and climate data generated by the ClimateWNA model were used. Height-age trajectories differed between top height trees in natural and reclaimed stands for jack pine and white spruce, but not for aspen. At a given age, white spruce top height trees were taller and jack pine top height trees were shorter in reclaimed stands compared to those in natural stands, suggesting that it is easier to achieve similar forest productivity for oil sands sites reclaimed with white spruce stands, but more difficult for sites reclaimed with jack pine stands. The principal climate variables were growing season (May to September) precipitation averaged over the previous ten years for aspen and jack pine and summer (June to August) precipitation averaged over the previous ten years for white spruce, all having positive effects on the height-age trajectories.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author