Dataset Information

Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation.

ABSTRACT: Quantifying the relationship between tree diameter and height is a key component of efforts to estimate biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forests. Although substantial site-to-site variation in height-diameter allometries has been documented, the time consuming nature of measuring all tree heights in an inventory plot means that most studies do not include height, or else use generic pan-tropical or regional allometric equations to estimate height.Using a pan-tropical dataset of 73 plots where at least 150 trees had in-field ground-based height measurements, we examined how the number of trees sampled affects the performance of locally derived height-diameter allometries, and evaluated the performance of different methods for sampling trees for height measurement.Using cross-validation, we found that allometries constructed with just 20 locally measured values could often predict tree height with lower error than regional or climate-based allometries (mean reduction in prediction error = 0.46 m). The predictive performance of locally derived allometries improved with sample size, but with diminishing returns in performance gains when more than 40 trees were sampled. Estimates of stand-level biomass produced using local allometries to estimate tree height show no over- or under-estimation bias when compared with biomass estimates using field measured heights. We evaluated five strategies to sample trees for height measurement, and found that sampling strategies that included measuring the heights of the ten largest diameter trees in a plot outperformed (in terms of resulting in local height-diameter models with low height prediction error) entirely random or diameter size-class stratified approaches.Our results indicate that even limited sampling of heights can be used to refine height-diameter allometries. We recommend aiming for a conservative threshold of sampling 50 trees per location for height measurement, and including the ten trees with the largest diameter in this sample.

SUBMITTER: Sullivan MJP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5993227 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation.

Sullivan Martin J P MJP Lewis Simon L SL Hubau Wannes W Qie Lan L Baker Timothy R TR Banin Lindsay F LF Chave Jerôme J Cuni-Sanchez Aida A Feldpausch Ted R TR Lopez-Gonzalez Gabriela G Arets Eric E Ashton Peter P Bastin Jean-François JF Berry Nicholas J NJ Bogaert Jan J Boot Rene R Brearley Francis Q FQ Brienen Roel R Burslem David F R P DFRP de Canniere Charles C Chudomelová Markéta M Dančák Martin M Ewango Corneille C Hédl Radim R Lloyd Jon J Makana Jean-Remy JR Malhi Yadvinder Y Marimon Beatriz S BS Junior Ben Hur Marimon BHM Metali Faizah F Moore Sam S Nagy Laszlo L Vargas Percy Nuñez PN Pendry Colin A CA Ramírez-Angulo Hirma H Reitsma Jan J Rutishauser Ervan E Salim Kamariah Abu KA Sonké Bonaventure B Sukri Rahayu S RS Sunderland Terry T Svátek Martin M Umunay Peter M PM Martinez Rodolfo Vasquez RV Vernimmen Ronald R E RRE Torre Emilio Vilanova EV Vleminckx Jason J Vos Vincent V Phillips Oliver L OL

Methods in ecology and evolution 20180213 5

Quantifying the relationship between tree diameter and height is a key component of efforts to estimate biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forests. Although substantial site-to-site variation in height-diameter allometries has been documented, the time consuming nature of measuring all tree heights in an inventory plot means that most studies do not include height, or else use generic pan-tropical or regional allometric equations to estimate height.Using a pan-tropical dataset of 73 plots whe ...[more]

PMID: 29938017

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Project description:The extent to which interspecific niche differences structure plant communities is highly debated, with extreme viewpoints ranging from fine-scaled niche partitioning, where every species in the community is specialized to a distinct niche, to neutrality, where species have no niche or fitness differences. However, there exists a default position wherein niches of species in a community are determined by their evolutionary and biogeographic histories, irrespective of other species within the community. According to this viewpoint, a broad range of pair-wise niche overlaps-from completely overlapping to completely distinct-are expected in any community without the need to invoke interspecific interactions. We develop a method that can test for both habitat associations and niche differences along an arbitrary number of spatial and temporal niche dimensions and apply it to a 24-yr data set of the eight dominant woody-plant species (representing 84% and 76% of total community abundance and basal area, respectively) from a 50-ha permanent plot in a southern Indian tropical dry forest, using edaphic, topographic, and precipitation variables as niche axes. Species separated into two broad groups in niche space-one consisting of three canopy species and the other of a canopy species and four understory species-along axes that corresponded mainly to variation in soil P, Al and a topographic index of wetness. Species within groups tended to have significantly greater niche overlap than expected by chance. Community-wide niche overlap in spatial and temporal niche axes was never smaller than expected by chance. Species-habitat associations were neither necessary nor sufficient preconditions for niche differences to be present. Our results suggest that this tropical dry-forest community consists of several tree species with broadly overlapping niches, and where significant niche differences do exist, they are not readily interpretable as evidence for niche differentiation. We argue, based on a survey of the literature, that many of the observed niche differences in tropical forests are more parsimoniously viewed as autecological differences between species that exist independently of interspecific interactions.

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Dataset Information

Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation.

Publications

Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation.

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