Biomass Estimates of Small Diameter Planted and Natural-Origin Loblolly Pines Show Major Departures from the National Biomass Estimator Equations

Autor: Don C. Bragg, Kristin M. McElligott, Jamie L. Schuler
Přispěvatelé: Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Forest Science. 63:319-330
ISSN: 0015-749X
DOI: 10.5849/fs-2016-047
Popis: As southern pine forests (both planted and naturally regenerated) are more heavily used to provide biomass for the developing energy sectors and carbon sequestration, a better understanding of models used to characterize regional biomass estimates is needed. We harvested loblolly pines (Pinus taeda L.) between 0.5 and 15 cm dbh from several plantations and naturally regenerated stands in southeastern Arkansas to evaluate allometric relationships based on stand origin. In this process, each pine was separated into stemwood, branches + foliage, and taproot biomass components. Although the differences changed with dbh, loblolly pines from planted stands generally had greater percentages of biomass allocated to foliage + branches and taproots, whereas those from natural-origin stands had greater amounts in stemwood, aboveground, and total biomass. National Biomass Estimator (NBE) high-specific gravity pine equations predicted natural-origin aboveground biomass reasonably well. However, the same NBE model underpredicted aboveground biomass for small (similar to 5 cm) diameter planted pine and overpredicted planted pines between 7 and 15 cm dbh. When scaled to stand-level estimates, the NBE models resulted in estimates for average stand diameters of 5, 10, and 15 cm that ranged from -18.6 to 2.1% for natural stands and from -21.9 to 62.8% for planted stands. Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture [2009-35103-05356]; Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service; Arkansas Forest Resources Center We thank the following individuals for their contributions: Kirby Sneed and Rick Stagg (USDA Forest Service); Jonathan Hartley (University of Arkansas-Monticello); and Conner Fristoe (Weyerhaeuser Company). This research was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2009-35103-05356 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service, and the Arkansas Forest Resources Center. Public domain – authored by a U.S. government employee
Databáze: OpenAIRE