Ozone and moisture gave no clear joint link to next-year forest biosite records in four eastern US samples in 1994-2009

We tested whether seasonal ozone and soil moisture jointly predict next-year usable records at forest biosites. We used 5,465 model records in the Northeast and North Central US, in 1994-2002 and 2003-2009. Models controlled site and state-year effects, injury, plant effort, visit date and temperature. Ozone by moisture slopes ranged from -0.009 to 0.024 probability per 10 ppm-hour W126 and one moisture standard deviation. All four state-cluster intervals included zero after correction for four tests. Alternative environmental matching, effort controls, monitor distance and year effects gave the same broad result. This is an observation-bias check using records from an earlier SCI study, not independent validation of its injury result. Missing keys can reflect identifier changes or data filters as well as missed visits. Few state clusters, selected sites and wide intervals limit inference. The result does not show random missingness or a causal climate effect. Code, aggregate results, source hashes, numerical checks and a figure are included.

ozone · soil moisture · forest plants · observation bias · record availability · regional replication · null result