Modelling the damage status of silver fir trees ( Abies alba Mill.) on the basis of geomorphological, climatic and stand factors

Abstract

The paper investigates the possibility of assessing damage (health status) of silver fir ( Abies alba Mill.) using multivariate regression models in the function of geomorphological, climatic and stand factors. Research was carried out in beech-fir forests ( Abieti-Fagetum), on limestone-dolomite substrate, in the Dinaric part of the silver fir range in the Republic of Croatia. A general linear modelling method was used, where square terms and interaction terms (multiplication products) of original variables were treated as independent linear predictors. Twenty-seven separate models (all of them with significant part of explained fir damage variability) were developed regarding the different subsets of input data, different subsets of independent variables and different model design. Some of these models could be preliminary used for spatial predicting and mapping of fir damage in a frame of raster-GIS, for entire area of Dinaric part of Abieti-Fagetum in Croatia.