Biomass statistics for Maryland--1986

Abstract

All Trees • Dry weight averages 56 percent of green weight for all species on a statewide basis. The inventories are conducted under the authority of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act of 1 928 and subsequent acts including the Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1 974 and the Renewable Resources Research Act of 1 978. The statistics presented in this report are a summary of data collected on new field plots established during the fourth inventory and on a remeasured subsample of plots established during the previous inventories. The new-plot sample consisted of 602 ground plots randomly selected from 1 8,355 photo points classified by land use and cubic-foot volume class. The remeasured sample consisted of 550 plots from the third survey. A total of 1,152 points was sampled for an average of one plot for every 5,465 acres of land area. Data were collected, processed, and analyzed by the Forest Inventory and Analysis staff. A complete list of available biomass tables is included in this report. These tables are available on microfiche by state, geographic unit (Fig. 1), and county. Other tables or additional information may be developed. For further information, contact the Forest Inventory and Analysis Unit, USDA Forest Service, 100 Matsonford Road, Radnor, PA 19087 (215-975-4074). Methods Traditionally, forest resource data have been collected to describe the forest in terms of its timber production capabilities. Board-foot and cubic-foot measures of volume (Fig. 2) were and are adequate for that purpose. Although timber production is still considered by many to be the primary use of forest land, there are many data users that are also interested in how the resource can be used for energy production, fiberbased products, wildlife, or recreation. Because board-foot and cubic-foot volume estimates do not describe the forest resource broadly enough, biomass estimates have been built into the standard USDA Forest Service inventory procedure (Fig. 2). Definition of Terms Board foot. A unit of lumber measurement 1 foot long, 1 foot wide, and 1 inch thick, or its equivalent. Commercial species. Tree species presently or prospectively suitable for industrial wood products. Excludes species of typically small size, poor form, or inferior quality, such as hawthorn or sumac. Cull tree. A rough tree or a rotten tree. Diameter at breast height (d.b.h.). The diameter outside bark of a standing tree measured at 4-1/2 feet above the ground. Dry weight. The weight of wood and bark, oven-dry basis. It is usually expressed in pounds or tons. Forest land. Land that is at least 10 percent stocked with trees of any size, or that formerly had such tree cover and is not currently developed for a nonforest use. The minimum area for classification of forest land is 1 acre. Forest type. A classification of forest land based on the species that form a plurality of live tree basalarea stocking. Forest-type group. A combination of forest types that share closely associated species or site requirements. The many forest types in Marylan...

Biomass and NPP Estimation for the Mid-Atlantic Region (USA) Using Plot-Level Forest Inventory Data

“…The FIA sample is most reliable when statistics are computed and aggregated for large geographic units such as a county or state (e.g., see Frieswyk and DiGiovanni [1990] and Alerich and Drake [1995]). However, process models are typically parameterized to respond to spatial variability in land cover and environmental conditions, and thus their predictions are often presented as gridded maps, using grid cells of some uniform size.…”

Uncertainty of Forest Biomass Estimates in North Temperate Forests Due to Allometry: Implications for Remote Sensing

“…For instance, the two statistics SEE and CF for black birch (Betula velutina) were not listed in Ter-Mikaelian, so they were estimated from the summary in Tritton and Hornbeck [33]. The allometric coefficients for American chestnut (Castanea dentata) were not listed altogether in [12] so the coefficients from sugar maple (Acer saccharum) were used instead, as suggested in [3]. Similarly, coefficients for paper birch (Betula papyrifera) were used for hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana, an infrequently occurring understory species).…”

“…Because of the large amount of studies that document such equations, it becomes important to be able to correctly identify the most representative equations. Typically, biomass allometry studies either focus on one or a select few species across multiple regions or biomes [25][26][27][28]; for multiple species that belong to a particular region or ecosystem [3,22,[29][30][31][32]; or constitute literature that focuses on compiling multiple studies [12,13,33,34]. The cited examples are not meant to be exhaustive, in fact hardly so, since studies, especially of the first two types, easily number in the hundreds.…”

“…Of these stocks, the carbon held in above-and below-ground forest woody vegetation, i.e., forest biomass carbon (MgC·ha −1 ) is a key component. Forest biomass carbon has been estimated by numerous scientific field studies and national programs [3][4][5][6], but aggregating data from inconsistent and spatially limited studies to generate global estimates of biomass may lead to errors [7]. Remote sensing offers a potential solution to greater global consistency of estimates.…”