GROUPING OF SAMPLE UNITS OF Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Ktze. ACCORDING TO VARIABLES OF THE SOIL, OF BURLAP AND LEAFS, IN THE AREA OF CANELA, RS

<p>The lack of specific knowledge with regard to the silvicultural requirements of the Paraná pine motivated the development of this work, that had as main objective the grouping of similar sample units according to the physical factors and to the nutrients of the soil, to the leafs and to the burlap of a stand of <em>Araucaria angustifolia </em>(Bert.) O. Ktze. This was accomplished through the systematic comparison of a statistical distance and through the obtaining of discriminant functions a allowed to classify new sample units in the groups, in the National Forest of Canela, RS. To do so the statistical techniques of multivariate analysis of Cluster and Discriminant Analysis were used. Through the Cluster Analysis, taking as base a head office of 12 cases (trees) for 84 columns (variables), 3 groups were obtained, being the same different from the natural site <br /> classification. For the Discriminant Analysis two discriminant functions, were determined taking as base eight rude variables, enough to classify new individuals in the groups obtained by the Cluster Analysis.