Production Potential and Development of a Decision Support Models for the Plantations of Aleppo Pine in the Oued Laou Watershed in the Moroccan Rif

Abstract

The present study was carried out in the Oued Laou watershed belonging to the Moroccan Rif. It aims at the elaboration of mathematical tariffs for cubing Aleppo pine, the morphometric and increments study. The data analyzed for this purpose were collected after a preliminary stratification of the forest based on the plantation age. The study of the region’s climate shows that the western sector of the watershed is part of the temperate humid bioclimate, and the eastern sector belongs to the warm variant subhumid. The analysis of the stand-study structure shows that the distribution of the number of stems as a function of the circumference is a distribution close to normal. Cubic rates have been constructed to estimate the volume of trees. The mean annual volume increment of Aleppo pine varies between 3.10 and 4.83 m3/ha/year from one plot to another; this small fluctuation largely reflects the homogeneity of the study area. Aleppo pine has a wide ecological and spatial plasticity: colonization of all substrates, bioclimates ranging from semi-arid to temperate humid. It’s a species that exhibits uniform behavior despite topographic and edaphic variations.