Paludification reduces black spruce growth rate but does not alter tree water use efficiency in Canadian boreal forested peatlands

Table 1 Characteristics of the three study sites^a

Site	Mean organic layer thickness (cm)	Core length (cm)	Mean WTD (cm)	Mean DBH^b (cm)	Tree aboveground biomass^b (kg·m^− 2)	Tree density^b,c (trees·ha^− 1)	Mean tree height^d (m)
CAS0	40 ± 5	38	25 ± 2	10.0 ± 1.6	8.9 ± 0.3	1200	13.8 ± 0.4
CAS50	73 ± 4	69	20 ± 1	9.1 ± 1.1	7.6 ± 0.3	1200	11.3 ± 0.5
CAS100	98 ± 4	95	10 ± 2	5.6 ± 0.8	4.6 ± 0.2	1000	10.4 ± 0.5

^a ± values correspond to standard errors
^b Calculated from all trees (DBH ≥ 1 cm) within a 10 m × 10 m plot, which includes 20, 24, and 34 trees for sites CAS0, CAS50, and CAS100 respectively
^c Include trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9 cm
^d Calculated from the 20 black spruce trees (dominant and co-dominant) sampled at each site