Author/Authors :
D.G.، Pitt نويسنده , , F.W.، Bell نويسنده ,
Abstract :
Stem, branch, needle, and total aboveground biomass were assessed for three 9- to 12-year-old white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) plantations, each subjected to three different stand tending options at age 4 to 7. Biomass components were predicted from measures of stem diameter with coefficients of variation between 24% and 29%. Diameter at breast height (DBH) generally provided lower prediction precision than did the lower stem measures tested (coefficient of variation > 35%). The addition of tree height in models reduced the standard error of the estimates for stem and total biomass by an average of 48% and 8%, respectively, and compensated for different height/diameter ratios imposed on the spruce by the stand tending treatments. Needle and branch biomass models were invariant to the tending treatments and, consequently, to the addition of height as an independent variable. Predictions from existing published white spruce equations suggest that extrapolation to this study area would have led to adequate stem biomass estimation but to serious (>55%) underestimates of branch, needle, and, correspondingly, total biomass. Slow self-pruning by plantation spruce, particularly before crown closure, is cited as a possible reason for these differences.