Grouping of Pedunculate Oak provenances on the basis of biomass by applying cluster analysis

During the Pedunculate Oak provenance trial, the tree biomass was analysed on the basis of 5 variables (stem weight, live branches, dry branches, leaves). Through cluster analysis (hierarchy and k-means), Pedunculate Oak provenances were grouped and the differences in monitored features between resulting clusters were analysed. Results show that the inclusion of individual provenances into clusters corresponds in both the hierarchy and nonhierarchy procedure (in total 4). Clusters don´t follow geographic links, therefore we assume genetic connectedness. Cluster1 (Vrbanja) shows the highest values for all analysed features except the dry branches, which indicates that the process of branch dying and stem cleaning in this provenance has not yet started. Cluster3 (Motovun, Dubica, Skakavac, Gusevac, Morovic, V.Gorica) shows the lowest values for all analysed features except the dry branches. Clusters2 (Orlovac, Spacva, Zdenacki Gaj, Kljucevi, Novska, Gunja, Lipovljani) and 4 (Okucani and Durdenovac) show very similar results for every feature except the dry branches where cluster4 has higher value than cluster2 although they are geographically relatively close.