Biomass and stem volume equations for tree species in Europe

METLA Project 3306: Forest Carbon Sink and Economical Costs of Kyoto Protocol prduced a database of treewise volume- and biomass equations according to diameter at breast height and/or height includes equations for common European tree species. Equations will be used when estimating biomass expansion factors for major tree species. Database was compiled as a joint project with University of Edinburgh, Finnish Forest Research Institute and partners of COST E21 Action. The attached excel-files files extended and updated versions of those published previously in the printed publication. See the figure about a sample of compiled equations (files: appendix-A.xls and appendix-BC.xls).

A review of stem volume and biomass equations for tree species growing in Europe is presented. The mathematical forms of the empirical models, the associated statistical parameters and information about the size of the trees and the country of origin were collated from scientific articles and from technical reports. The total number of the compiled equations for biomass estimation was 607 and for stem volume prediction it was 230. The analysis indicated that most of the biomass equations were developed for aboveground tree components. A relatively small number of equations were developed for southern Europe. Most of the biomass equations were based on a few sampled sites with a very limited number of sampled trees. The volume equations were, in general, based on more representative data covering larger geographical regions. The volume equations were available for major tree species in Europe. The collected information provides a basic tool for estimation of carbon stocks and nutrient balance of forest ecosystems across Europe as well as for validation of theoretical models of biomass allocation.

Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the EU-funded research consortium ‘Multi-source inventory methods for quantifying carbon stocks and stock changes in European forests’ (CarboInvent EKV2-CT-2002-00157). In addition, Dr. Dimitris Zianis was partially supported by the I.K.Y (Scholarship State Foundation of Greece), and prof. M. Mencuccini M. Mencuccini by the EU-funded Carbo-Age project (EVK2-1999-CT-00045).

Contents 1 Introduction - 5 2 Material and Methods - 6 3 Results - 7 3.1 Biomass Equations - 7 3.2 Stem Volume Equations - 11 4 Discussion - 14 References - 16 Appendix A. Biomass equations for different biomass components by tree species - 18 Appendix B. General descriptions of volume equations - 44 Appendix C. Volume equations for different tree species - 52