Abstract
Sugar maple across the Northern Forest, which includes the Adirondack Mountains, is vulnerable to many climate-related stressors. However, climatic limitations to growth may interact with additional local-scale factors, such as soil chemistry. The synergistic effects of acid deposition and climate on sugar maple growth were explored in this study. We analyzed the sensitivity of sugar maple growth to climatic variability and how growth-climate relationships might vary across different soil fertility groups. These relationships were used to construct a linear mixed model of sugar maple growth. In addition, uncertainty in the source data used may have an impact on the ecological representation of this data. High-resolution gridded historical climate (GHC) data products were evaluated for prediction accuracy and sources of uncertainty. A greater understanding of these stressors (climate, acid deposition) and their synergistic effects on sugar maple growth is needed to improve management practices and adapt to future changes.