Biomass

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Above Ground Biomass Estimates at Saltonstall Ridge, Branford, CT. 1999   Introduction To estimate the biomass found on Saltonstall Ridge, we applied biomass equations from "Biomass Equations for Sixty-Five North American Tree Species" published in Forest Ecology and Management (see below). The equations estimating biomass were developed by relating biomass to tree diameter at breast height (DBH) and other tree characteristics. Individual tree species often have more than one biomass equation due to the fact that the biomass equations were developed in several different geographical locations. Consequently, we had to use biomass equations that were developed for other sites that were differnent from the conditions found at our own site. In "Biomass Equations for Sixty-Five North American Tree Species," the author suggests different approaches that researchers can take to minimize sample error: find the geographically closest site use several reported equations to estimate the range of biomass generate biomass data using various published equations and fit a new equation to the generated data.   For the purposes of our study, we selected equations from the geographical regions closest to our sample area. In every case, we used the equation for total above ground biomass (AB). The majority of the biomass equations are in the form m=aD b, where m is the overdry weight biomass of the tree (kg), D is the dbh (cm) and a and b are parameters. The parameters a and b are different for every species. These formulas give reasonable estimates of above ground biomass based on tree species and dbh.   Introduction List of Biomass Equations  How are Biomass Estimates Calculated? Biomass Estimates for 1991 vs. 1999 Estimated Biomass Based on Annual Tree Growth DBH vs Biomass of Dominant Tree Species   Ter-Mikaelian, Michael T. and Michael D. Korzukhin (1997), "Biomass equations for sixty-five North American Tree species", Forest Ecology and Management,1-24.

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Methods of Ecosystem Analysis
Date Last Modified: 4/12/99
F&ES 579B, Spring 1999