Comparision of Four Foliar and Woody Biomass Estimation Methods Applied to Open-Grown Deciduous Trees

Abstract

Concern about global climate change and the effects that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide could have on the earth has risen in recent years. Methods for accurately and efficiently quantifying carbon storage and annual carbon fluxes are needed to determine what role urban forests may have in reducing levels of atmospheric CO2. This will require the development of techniques for estimating foliar and woody biomass of individual trees. In this study, 2 sampling methods and 2 regression formulas for estimating foliar and above-ground woody biomass were tested against the actual above-ground biomass of 8 opengrown deciduous trees (2 species). There was no significant difference between one of the subsampling methods and actual foliar, woody, and total above-ground biomass. There were indications that the method's precision in estimating foliar biomass could be improved by modifying the sampling method.The second sampling method predicted foliar biomass of heavily pruned trees within 8% of actual measurements. For unpruned or lightly pruned trees, one of the regression equations showed no significant difference between estimates of foliar biomass and actual biomass.