Abstract
Accurate estimation of forest biomass and its growth potential could be important in assessing the mitigation potential of forest for climate change. However, severe mechanical disturbance such as stem breakage imposed significant changes to tree individuals in biomass structure, which could bring new inaccuracy to biomass estimation. In order to investigate the influence of severe mechanical disturbance on tree biomass accumulation and to construct accurate models for biomass and carbon storage estimation, this paper analyzed the relationship between tree size and biomass for China fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) which suffered stem breakage from, and survived, an ice storm. The performance of independent variables diameter (D) and height (H) of China fir, were also compared in biomass estimation. The results showed that D as an independent variable was adequate in biomass estimation for China fir, and tree height was not necessary in this case. Root growth was faster in China fir which had suffered breakage in the main stem by the ice storm, than China fir which were undamaged for at least 7 years after the mechanical disturbance, which, in addition to biomass loss in stem, caused changes in the allocation pattern of the damaged trees. This suggests biomass models constructed before severe mechanical disturbance would be less suitable in application for a subsequent period, and accurate estimations of biomass and forest carbon storage would take more effort.
Highlights
Accurate estimation of forest carbon storage and its growth potential is the basis for forest quality assessment and may be important in assessing the mitigation potential of forest for climate change [1,2]
This paper investigated the biomass accumulation of China fir after stem breakage caused by the ice storm, in order to investigate the influence of severe mechanical disturbance on tree biomass accumulation, and to construct accurate biomass models for biomass and carbon storage estimation
Biomass models of different components were constructed for China fir with D or
Summary
Accurate estimation of forest carbon storage and its growth potential is the basis for forest quality assessment and may be important in assessing the mitigation potential of forest for climate change [1,2]. The direct method is the most accurate, and time-consuming, laborious and destructive to operate It is not suitable for biomass estimation in a large area and has only been adopted by a few scholars [4]. With a small number of cut samples, an allometric model can be applied to construct regression between biomass and tree size, such as, diameter at breast height and tree height. This method has good estimation accuracy and is the most widely used biomass estimation method so far [6,7,8]. In order to reduce the error and uncertainty during biomass
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