Ozone and moisture gave no clear common link to voucher non-confirmation in four eastern US forest samples in 1994-2010

We tested whether expert non-confirmation of field ozone injury calls had a common link to ozone and soil moisture. Four separate Northeast and North Central US samples in 1994-2002 and 2003-2010 used 3,732 submitted plant vouchers. Models held site-species and year effects fixed and controlled visit day, temperature and protocol. Ozone and moisture product coefficients were -0.019, +0.068, -0.097 and -0.068 probability per 10 ppm-h per moisture SD. All four adjusted intervals included zero. Prior-visit ozone and other checks gave no clear common link. Non-confirmation includes both non-ozone symptoms and uncertain diagnosis; it is not a false-positive rate. Selection into submission, short records and coarse exposure estimates limit inference. The result does not show that observation bias is absent or validate earlier injury effects. Code, aggregate estimates, a figure, exact input hashes and a verified local retrieval recipe are included. Source record data remain external.

ozone · soil moisture · forest plants · voucher validation · observation bias · regional replication · null result