Supplementary Tables
Table S1 – Variables considered in productivity modelling
CLIMATIC VARIABLES
SOIL AND OTHER VARIABLES
STAND STRUCTURAL AND DISTURBANCE RELATED
VARIABLES
PLOT LEVEL VARIABLES
Annual mean temperatures (0.314, [ ], 0.812 °C year-1)
Aspect (107, [ ], 121 o)
Shannon index (1.79, [ ], 0.371)
Monthly water balance (15, [ ], 16 mm)
Altitude (339, [ ], 76 m)
Shannon Evenness index (0.71, [ ], 0.15)
Total annual precipitation (883, [ ], 47 mm)
Slope (7, [ ], 9%)
Mean plot age (63, [ ], 29 years)
Growing season days (121, [ ], 10 days)
Depth of organic layer (17.3, [ ], 20.9 cm)
Simpson index (0.799, [ ], 0.092)
Potential evapotranspiration (474, [ ], 15 mm)
Percentage of rock/stoniness (18, [ ], 20%)
Spruce basal area proportion (48.5, [ ], 38%)
Vapour pressure deficit (172, [ ], 13 kPa)
Soil texture ([27])
Aspen basal area proportion (14.9, [ ], 28%)
Annual sum of growing degree-days above 50C over a year (1299, [ ], 104 °C
Drainage ([19])
Birch basal area proportion (13.6, [ ], 24%)
year )
-1
Spring mean temperature (7.3, [ ], 0.7 °C year-1)
Soil surface deposit ([54])
1
Jack pine basal area proportion (12.2, [ ], 24.7%)
Spring total precipitation (224, [ ], 7 mm)
Soil surface deposit ([7])
Balsam fir basal area proportion (6.7, [ ], 14.3%)
Spring cumulative growing degree days (404, [ ], 35 °C year-1)
Soil surface deposit2 ([4])
Thuya basal area proportion (0.4, [ ], 4.5%)
Spring vapour pressure deficit (61, [ ], 4 kPa)
Soil humus classes ([7])
Latitude (47.6833 - 51.10743)
Spring potential evapotranspiration (378, [ ], 16 mm)
Longitude (-79.5167 - -75.9929)
Summer mean temperature (14, [ ], 0.5 °C year-1)
Summer total precipitation (324, [ ], 13 mm)
Summer cumulative growing degree days (820, [ ], 45 °C year-1)
Summer vapour pressure deficit (72, [ ], 3.8 kPa)
Summer potential evapotranspiration (325, [ ], 15 mm)
50-year mean of Annual sum of growing degree-days above 50C over a year
(1277, [ ], 88 days)
50-year mean of total annual precipitation (916, [ ], 36 mm)
50-year mean of mean annual temperature (0.58, [ ], 0.7 0C)
50-year mean of growing season days (133, [ ], 6 days)
1
50-year mean monthly water balance (24, [ ], 6 mm)
50-year mean of vapour pressure deficit (170, [ ], 10 kPa)
50-year mean of potential evapotranspiration (480, [ ], 14 mm)
LANDSCAPE LEVEL VARIABLES
Annual sum of degree days (1299, [ ], 94 °C year-1)
Dominant surface deposit ([4])
Spruce proportion (83, [ ], 16%)
Annual precipitation (883, [ ], 42 mm)
Dominant drainage ([4])
Birch proportion (43, [ ], 27%)
Annual mean temperature (0.31, [ ], 0.76 °C year-1)
Dominant texture ([5])
Balsam fir proportion (38, [ ], 22%)
Average growing season days (121, [ ], 10 days)
Mean stoniness (18, [ ], 15%)
Aspen proportion (33, [ ], 23%)
Mean water balance (15, [ ], 15 mm)
Mean depth of organic layer (17, [ ], 7 cm)
Jack pine proportion (29, [ ], 24%)
Mean potential evapotranspiration (474, [ ], 14 mm)
Thuya proportion (1, [ ], 1%)
Mean vapour pressure deficit (172, [ ], 12 kpa)
Dominant potential vegetation ([7])
50-year average degree days (1277, [ ], 79 °C year-1)
Dominant ecological type ([20])
50-year average of total annual precipitation (916, [ ], 35 mm)
Regional landscape unit ([19])
50-year average annual mean temperature (0.58, [ ], 0.65 °C year-1)
Ecological district ([191])
50-year average of growing season days (133, [ ], 5 days)
Ecological sub-region ([5])
50-year average of water balance (24, [ ], 5 mm)
Ecological region ([2])
50-year average of vapour pressure deficit (170, [ ], 9 kpa)
Mean age (63, [ ], 17 years)
50-year average of potential evapotranspiration (480, [ ], 13 mm)
Annual burn rate per ecological district (0.002, [ ], 0.008 )
[ ] refers to degrees of freedom (4217 plots) from which mean and standard error values were estimated. For categorical variables it
represents number of classes.
For latitude and longitudes, minimum and maximum values were reported
1
Regrouped according to Mansuy et al., 2010.
2
Regrouped according to Belleau et al., 2011.
2
Table S2: Differences in correlation when spatial autocorrelation is accounted for (yes) and not accounted for (No) in variable
correlation with site index. R2 remained constant in both instances.
VARIABLE
AIC (NO)
AIC (YES)
R2
Stand Age
22343.24
22341.24
0.36
Aspen basal area proportion
21035.43
21033.43
0.29
Shannon index
20788.48
20786.48
0.13
3
Table S3: Calibrated models
Model Number
Model Form
[6a]
S coarse  S coarse f Shan.coarse f Age.coarse fGaspen.coarse fGjackpine.coarse
[6b]
Still  Still f Shan.till f Age.till
[6c]
S clay  S clay f Shan.clay f Age.clay fGaspen.clay
[6d]
S org  S org f Shan.org f Age.org fGaspen.org
[7a]
S D.coarse  S D.coarse f Shan.D.coarse f Age.D.coarse fGaspen.D.coarse fGjackpine.D.coarse
[7b]
S D.till  S D.till fShan.D.till f Age.D.till fGaspen.D.till fGjackpine.D.till fDD.D.till
[7c]
S D.clay  S D.clay f Shan.D.clay f Age.D.clay fGaspen.D.clay fGjackpine.D.clay
[7d]
S D.org  S D.org f Shan.D.org f Age.D.org fGaspen.D.org fGjackpine.D.org
[8a]
S mix  S mix f Shan.mix f Age.mix fGaspen.mix fGjackpine.mix
[8b]
S conf  S conf fShan.conf f Age.conf fGaspen.conf forgL.conf fDD.conf
4
[9]
n
S  (S    i zDep ,i  sd ) fShan fAge fGaspen fGjackpine
i 1
Where S is predicted site index, S mix and S conf refer to predicted site indices within mixedwood and conifer landscapes respectively. S
is mean site index estimated from the calibration dataset, SD is the mean site index by dominant deposit type, Smix and Sconf denote the
mean site indices estimated from calibration dataset respectively for mixedwood and conifer landscapes. f Shan , f Age , f Gaspen , f Gjackpine , f DD
are modifiers for Shannon index, stand age, aspen, jack pine basal area proportions and growing degree days respectively. Subscripts
coarse, till, clay, org refer to plot-level coarse, till, clay and organic deposit types respectively. The subscripts D.coarse, D.till, D.clay
and D.org refer to landscapes dominated by coarse, till, clay and organic deposits respectively. sd accounts for the random component
of the model.
5
Table S4a: Parameter estimates and their standard errors for models by plot level soil deposit types
PARAMETER
Mean
Shannon index
Aspen basal area proportion
Jack pine basal area
proportion
ESTIMATE
ESTIMATE
ESTIMATE
EQN. 6A
EQN. 6B
EQN. 6C
EQN. 6D
14.781 (2.991)
12.623 (3.301)
17.097 (3.914)
11.522 (0.196)
0.639 (0.019)
0.822 (0.071)
0.683 (0.022)
0.680 (0.044)
-
-
-
0.404 (0.088)
β l.age
-0.236 (0.009)
-0.254 (0.049)
-0.098 (0.011)
-0.225 (0.031)
β q.age
0.208 (0.012)
0.336 (0.076)
0.038 (0.009)
0.252 (0.048)
βl.Gaspen
0.024 (0.003)
-
0.081 (0.005)
0.013 (0.005)
β q.Gaspen
-0.001 (0.000)
-
-0.013 (0.004)
-
βl.Gjackpine
0.019 (0.003)
-
-
-
β q.Gjackpine
-
-
-
-
S
βl.Shan
βq.Shan
Stand age
ESTIMATE
6
Table S4b: Parameter estimates and standard errors for models by dominant soil deposit types
PARAMETER
ESTIMATE
ESTIMATE
ESTIMATE
ESTIMATE
EQN. 7C
EQN. 7D
EQN. 7A
EQN. 7B
15.132
14.328
15.370
14.509
Mean
S
Shannon index
βl.Shan
0.634 (0.034)
0.607 (0.028)
0.663 (0.017)
0.764 (0.046)
β q.Shan
-
-
0.209 (0.039)
-
β l.age
-0.261 (0.019)
-0.165 (0.014)
-0.140 (0.009)
-0.199 (0.024)
β q.age
0.184 (0.023)
0.236 (0.020)
0.058 (0.008)
0.208 (0.031)
βl.Gaspen
0.032 (0.005)
0.013 (0.003)
0.062 (0.004)
-
β q.Gaspen
-0.002 (0.001)
-
-0.006 (0.002)
-
βl.Gjackpine
0.024 (0.006)
0.019 (0.005)
-
-
β q.Gjackpine
-
-
-
-
βl.DD
-
0.376 (0.056)
-
-
β q.DD
-
0.258 (0.121)
-
-
βMAM
0.371 (0.196)
-
0.320 (0.149)
-
βMAC
-0.169 (0.213)
-
0.601 (0.218)
-
βROC
-0.671 (0.291)
-0.525 (0.213)
-0.628 (0.231)
-1.381 (0.547)
βORG
-1.179 (0.378)
-0.819 (0.286)
-0.655 (0.252)
-2.058 (0.465)
Stand age
Aspen basal area proportion
Jack pine basal area proportion
Growing degree days
Soil deposit
(
z Dep )
7
Table S4c: Parameter estimates and their standard errors for models by species richness (mixedwood vs. conifer dominated bioclimatic
domains)
PARAMETER
ESTIMATE
EQN. 8A
EQN. 8B
Mean
S
10.62 (0.131)
9.850 (0.245)
Shannon index
βl.Shan
0.293 (0.024)
0.476 (0.056)
β q.Shan
0.069 (0.011)
0.037 (0.026)
β l.age
-0.244 (0.008)
-0.025 (0.019)
β q.age
0.084 (0.010)
0.072 (0.015)
βl.Gaspen
0.043 (0.003)
0.025 (0.007)
β q.Gaspen
-0.003 (0.001)
0.003 (0.002)
βl.Gjackpine
0.007 (0.003)
-
β q.Gjackpine
0.001 (0.000)
-
βl.DD
-
0.071 (0.088)
β q.DD
-
-3.531 (0.749)
β l.orgL
-
-0.030 (0.009)
Age
Basal area proportion of aspen
Jack pine basal area proportion
Degree days
Organic layer depth
8
ESTIMATE
Table S4d: Parameter estimates and standard errors for the base (global) model
PARAMETER
ESTIMATE
EQN. 9
Mean
S
Shannon index
β l.Shan
0.696 (0.014 )
β q.Shan
0.197 (0.032)
β l.age
-0.197 (0.007)
β q.age
0.140 (0.008)
βl.Gaspen
0.038 (0.003)
β q.Gaspen
-0.002 (0.001)
βl.Gjackpine
0.005 (0.002)
β q.Gjackpine
0.001 (0.000)
βMM
-0.264 (0.089)
βROC
-0.775 (0.125)
βORG
-1.045 (0.149)
sd
0.743 (0.084)
Stand age
Aspen basal area proportion
Jack pine basal area proportion
Soil surface deposit ( z Dep )
Random Error
Table S5: Differences in AIC between base (Eqn. 9) and alternative models
9
Alternative Model
Delta AIC
Plot level deposit type (Eqns. 6a-6d)
34
Dominant deposit type (Eqns. 8a-8d)
19
Species richness (Bioclimatic domain, Eqns. 7a and 7b)
285
Species richness + plot level deposit
330
10