Construction of one-way volume table for the three major useful bamboos in Japan

Abstract

The one-way volume table for the three major useful bamboos in Japan, i.e., Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel ex Houz., Phyllostachys bambusoides Sieb. et Zucc. and Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis, was constructed based on a dataset of 920 felled culms collected from five different districts. Twenty-three models were fitted to the height–diameter relationship for each species, and their goodness of fit were compared. The height–diameter relationship for P. pubescens and P. nigra could be expressed by the reciprocal equation, whereas that for P. bambusoides was approximated by the simple allometric power equation. The culm height was predicted by substituting the measured diameter at breast height (dbh) into the determined height–diameter model. The apparent culm volume was then estimated from the measured dbh and the predicted culm height with the two-way volume equations derived in previous studies. For all species, there was no significant difference between the actual and estimated apparent culm volume. The one-way volume table for these bamboo species was constructed by combining the two-way volume equation and the height–diameter model, so that the apparent culm volume could be solely estimated from dbh. For the same dbh, P. bambusoides had the largest apparent culm volume compared to the other two species, whereas P. pubescens had the smallest one. The difference in the apparent culm volume was caused by the inter-specific variations in culm slenderness and/or taper. The volume table developed here will be useful in evaluating the amounts of resources of the three major useful bamboos in Japan.