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Biogeosciences Discuss., 9, 2567-2622, 2012
www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/9/2567/2012/ doi:10.5194/bgd-9-2567-2012 © Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
Tree height integrated into pan-tropical forest biomass estimates
1School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
2School of Earth and Environmental Science, James Cook University, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia
3Department of Geography, Univ. College London, UK
4RAINFOR/Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Peru
5School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine, BT52 1SA, UK
6Biology Programme, Faculty of Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Tungku Link Road BE1410, Brunei Darussalam
7Resource Management Support Centre, Forestry Commission of Ghana, P.O. Box 1457, Kumasi, Ghana
8New York Botanical Garden, New York City, New York 10458, USA
9Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Av. Magalhães Barata, 376 – São Braz, CEP: 66040-170, Belém, PA, Brazil
10National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA), C.P. 478, Manaus, Amazonas, CEP 69011-970, Brazil
11Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK
12Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, Universidad Autonoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, Casilla 2489, Av. Irala 565, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
13Centre for Ecosystem Studies, Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
14UNELLEZ-Guanare, Programa de Ciencias del Agro y el Mar, Herbario Universitario (PORT), Mesa de Cavacas, Estado Portuguesa 3350, Venezuela
15IBED, University of Amsterdam, POSTBUS 94248, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
16Tropical Land Use Change, University of Edinburgh,Tropical Land Use Change, UK
17Universidad Nacional de la Amazon\'ia Peruana, Iquitos, Loreto, Perú
18Université Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire EDB, bâtiment 4R3, 31062 Toulouse, France
19Mid-Atlantic Network, Inventory and Monitoring Program, National Park Service, 120 Chatham Lane, Fredericksburg, VA 22405, USA
20Facultad de Ingenier\'ia Forestal, Universidad del Tolima, 546 Ibagué, Colombia
21Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, SAC 5.150 Mailcode C3200, Austin, TX 78712, USA
22Ecosystem and Climate Change Division (ESCCD) Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), U.P. Box 63, KNUST-Kumasi, Ghana
23Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas – Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-090, Brasil
24Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institute, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 187, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
25Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan
26Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Kilómetro 2 Via Tarapacá, Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia
27Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), 52109 Kepong, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
28Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
29Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4878, Australia
30CSTM, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
31Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK
32Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Campus de Nova Xavantina, Caixa Postal 08, CEP 78.690-000, Nova Xavantina, MT, Brazil
33CIRCLE, Environment Department, University of York, York, UK
34Flamingo Land Ltd., Kirby Misperton, YO17 6UX, UK
35FOMABO (Manejo Forestal en las Tierras Tropicales de Bolivia), Sacta, Bolivia
36CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Tropical forest Research Centre, P.O. Box 780, Atherton, QLD 4883, Australia
37School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond St, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK
38National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA), Environmental Dynamics Department, C.P. 478, Manaus, Amazonas, CEP 69011-970, Brazil
39Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, 90715, Malaysia
40Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EJ, UK
41Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Oxapampa, Pasco, Peru
42Center for Tropical Conservation, Duke University, Box 90381, Durham, NC 27708, USA
43Doctorado Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
44Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales, Mérida, Venezuela
45Bureau Waardenburg bv, P.O. Box 365, 4100 AJ Culemborg, The Netherlands
46Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
47Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
48UFRA – Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Brasil
49Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Av. de la Cultura No. 733. Cusco, Peru
50Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco AC 69910-900, Brazil
51Department of Biology, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 047, Yaoundé, Cameroon
52European Commission – DG Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Via Enrico Fermi 274, 21010 Ispra, Italy
53Sarawak Forestry Corporation, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
54NCB Naturalis, PO Box, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands
55University of Sheffield, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield, S10 2TS, UK
56Instituto de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo Forestal (INDEFOR), Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela
57PROMAB, Casilla 107, Riberalta, Beni, Bolivia
58Universidad Autonoma del Beni, Campus Universitario, Av. Ejército Nacional, final, Riberalta, Beni, Bolivia
59Agence National des Parcs Nationaux, Libreville, Gabon
60Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale (CENAREST), Gabon
61School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, UK
62Sommersbergseestr. 291, 8990 Bad Aussee, Austria
†deceased
Abstract. Above-ground tropical tree biomass and carbon storage estimates commonly ignore tree height. We estimate the effect of incorporating height (H) on forest biomass estimates using 37 625 concomitant H and diameter measurements (n = 327 plots) and 1816 harvested trees (n = 21 plots) tropics-wide to answer the following questions:
1. For trees of known biomass (from destructive harvests) which H-model form and geographic scale (plot, region, and continent) most reduces biomass estimate uncertainty?
2. How much does including H relationship estimates derived in (1) reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates across 327 plots spanning four continents?
3. What effect does the inclusion of H in biomass estimates have on plot- and continental-scale forest biomass estimates?
The mean relative error in biomass estimates of the destructively harvested trees was half (mean 0.06) when including H, compared to excluding H (mean 0.13). The power- and Weibull-H asymptotic model provided the greatest reduction in uncertainty, with the regional Weibull-H model preferred because it reduces uncertainty in smaller-diameter classes that contain the bulk of biomass per hectare in most forests. Propagating the relationships from destructively harvested tree biomass to each of the 327 plots from across the tropics shows errors are reduced from 41.8 Mg ha−1 (range 6.6 to 112.4) to 8.0 Mg ha−1 (−2.5 to 23.0) when including $H$. For all plots, above-ground live biomass was 52.2±17.3 Mg ha−1 lower when including H estimates (13%), with the greatest reductions in estimated biomass in Brazilian Shield forests and relatively no change in the Guyana Shield, central Africa and southeast Asia. We show fundamentally different stand structure across the four forested tropical continents, which affects biomass reductions due to $H$. African forests store a greater portion of total biomass in large-diameter trees and trees are on average larger in diameter. This contrasts to forests on all other continents where smaller-diameter trees contain the greatest fractions of total biomass. After accounting for variation in $H$, total biomass per hectare is greatest in Australia, the Guyana Shield, and Asia and lowest in W. Africa, W. Amazonia, and the Brazilian Shield (descending order). Thus, if closed canopy tropical forests span 1668 million km2 and store 285 Pg C, then the overestimate is 35 Pg C if H is ignored, and the sampled plots are an unbiased statistical representation of all tropical forest in terms of biomass and height factors. Our results show that tree $H$ is an important allometric factor that needs to be included in future forest biomass estimates to reduce error in estimates of pantropical carbon stocks and emissions due to deforestation.
Citation: Feldpausch, T. R., Lloyd, J., Lewis, S. L., Brienen, R. J. W., Gloor, E., Monteagudo Mendoza, A., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Banin, L., Abu Salim, K., Affum-Baffoe, K., Alexiades, M., Almeida, S., Amaral, I., Andrade, A., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Araujo Murakami, A., Arets, E. J. M. M., Arroyo, L., G. A. Aymard C., Baker, T. R., Bánki, O. S., Berry, N. J., Cardozo, N., Chave, J., Comiskey, J. A., Dávila, E. A., de Oliveira, A., DiFiore, A., Djagbletey, G., Domingues, T. F., Erwin, T. L., Fearnside, P. M., França, M. B., Freitas, M.A., Higuchi, N., E. Honorio C., Iida, Y., Jiménez, E., Kassim, A. R., Killeen, T. J., Laurance, W. F., Lovett, J. C., Malhi, Y., Marimon, B. S., Marimon-Junior, B. H., Lenza, E., Marshall, A. R., Mendoza, C., Metcalfe, D. J., Mitchard, E. T. A., Nelson, B. W., Nilus, R., Nogueira, E. M., Parada, A., Peh, K. S.-H., Pena Cruz, A., Peñuela, M. C., Pitman, N. C. A., Prieto, A., Quesada, C.A., Ramírez, F., Ramírez-Angulo, H., Reitsma, J. M., Rudas, A., Saiz, G., Salomão, R. P., Schwarz, M., Silva, N., Silva-Espejo, J. E., Silveira, M., Sonké, B., Stropp, J., Taedoumg, H. E., Tan, S., ter Steege, H., Terborgh, J., Torello-Raventos, M., van der Heijden, G. M. F., Vásquez, R., Vilanova, E., Vos, V., White, L., Wilcock, S., Woell, H., and Phillips, O. L.: Tree height integrated into pan-tropical forest biomass estimates, Biogeosciences Discuss., 9, 2567-2622, doi:10.5194/bgd-9-2567-2012, 2012.