Improved allometric models to estimate the aboveground biomass of tropical trees |
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Authors: | Jérôme Chave Maxime Réjou‐Méchain Alberto Búrquez Emmanuel Chidumayo Matthew S Colgan Welington BC Delitti Alvaro Duque Tron Eid Philip M Fearnside Rosa C Goodman Matieu Henry Angelina Martínez‐Yrízar Wilson A Mugasha Helene C Muller‐Landau Maurizio Mencuccini Bruce W Nelson Alfred Ngomanda Euler M Nogueira Edgar Ortiz‐Malavassi Raphaël Pélissier Pierre Ploton Casey M Ryan Juan G Saldarriaga Ghislain Vieilledent |
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Institution: | 1. UMR 5174 Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, CNRS & Université Paul Sabatier, , Toulouse, 31062 France;2. Departamento de Ecología de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, , Sonora, C.P. 83000 México;3. Makeni Savanna Research project, , Lusaka, Zambia;4. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, , Stanford, 94305 CA, USA;5. Universidade de S?o Paulo, , Sao Paulo, 05508‐090 Brazil;6. Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, , Medellín, Colombia;7. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, , ?s, 1432 Norway;8. Department of Environmental Dynamics, National Institute for Research in the Amazon ‐ INPA, , Manaus, AM, CEP 69 060‐000 Brazil;9. School of Geography, University of Leeds, , Leeds, LS2 9JT UK;10. Forest Department, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, , Rome, 00153 Italy;11. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, , Panama, Republic of Panama;12. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, , Edinburgh, EH9 3JN UK;13. IRET, , Libreville, BP 13354 Gabon;14. Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, , Cartago, 159‐7050 Costa Rica;15. UMR AMAP, IRD, , Montpellier, 34000 France;16. Carrera 5 No 14‐05, , Cundinamarca, Colombia;17. CIRAD, UPR BSEF, , Montpellier, F‐34398 France |
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Abstract: | Terrestrial carbon stock mapping is important for the successful implementation of climate change mitigation policies. Its accuracy depends on the availability of reliable allometric models to infer oven‐dry aboveground biomass of trees from census data. The degree of uncertainty associated with previously published pantropical aboveground biomass allometries is large. We analyzed a global database of directly harvested trees at 58 sites, spanning a wide range of climatic conditions and vegetation types (4004 trees ≥ 5 cm trunk diameter). When trunk diameter, total tree height, and wood specific gravity were included in the aboveground biomass model as covariates, a single model was found to hold across tropical vegetation types, with no detectable effect of region or environmental factors. The mean percent bias and variance of this model was only slightly higher than that of locally fitted models. Wood specific gravity was an important predictor of aboveground biomass, especially when including a much broader range of vegetation types than previous studies. The generic tree diameter–height relationship depended linearly on a bioclimatic stress variable E, which compounds indices of temperature variability, precipitation variability, and drought intensity. For cases in which total tree height is unavailable for aboveground biomass estimation, a pantropical model incorporating wood density, trunk diameter, and the variable E outperformed previously published models without height. However, to minimize bias, the development of locally derived diameter–height relationships is advised whenever possible. Both new allometric models should contribute to improve the accuracy of biomass assessment protocols in tropical vegetation types, and to advancing our understanding of architectural and evolutionary constraints on woody plant development. |
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Keywords: | carbon forest inventory global carbon cycling plant allometry tree height tropics |
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