[1] A combination of statistical models and multisource data were used to map above-ground forest biomass for National Forest lands in California. To do this, data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer were used in combination with precipitation, temperature, and elevation data. The results show that coarse resolution remotely sensed data in combination with relevant topographic and climate data can be used to map aboveground biomass with good accuracy over large areas. For the data sets considered, empirical models based on a 2 percent sample explained 73 percent of the variance in biomass in the remaining 98 percent of the data with a root mean square error of 44.4 tons/ha. These results suggest that it should be feasible to improve estimates of above-ground carbon stocks at regional to continental scales in the near future.
The data for unreserved land in the study area (85 percent of the forested landscape) for the Current came from the most current National Forest inventories conducted by the Forest Inven Assessment tory and Analysis (FIA) program (USDA Forest Service 1994) and the recent PNW Research Station inventory of private and public unreserved lands outside National Unreserved Lands Forests (Waddell and Bassett 1997a,1997b,1997c). The National Forest inventories-Forest inventories of the Eldorado,
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