LAI and Leaf Biomass Allometric Equations for Three Common Tree Species  in a Hyrcanian Temperate Forest

Kahyani, Saleh; Sohrabi, Hormoz; Hosseini, Seyed Mohsen; Vanclay, Jerome K.

doi:10.4236/ojf.2016.62b001

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Thus, suitable tools for the estimation of its biomass are needed. Several allometric models were derived for European hornbeam within Europe, for instance in Albania [9], Belgium [10] and Germany [11] and within the Near East in Iran [12,13] and Turkey [14]. However, all mentioned works focused exclusively on coppice stands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stand-Level Biomass and Leaf Trait Models for Young Naturally Regenerated Forests of European Hornbeam

Konôpka

Murgaš

Šebeň

et al. 2023

Forests

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European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.) is a tree species widely distributed in Europe and the Asian part of the Near East. However, since European hornbeam is not very attractive for commercial purposes, scientific interest in this species has been rather sparse. Our study focused on dense young (up to 10 years old) European hornbeam stands originating from natural regeneration from seeds in Slovakia because in future the importance of this species may increase due to the climate change. We combined previously constructed tree-level biomass models, data on basic leaf traits, i.e., weight and area, and measurements from thirty plots located at ten different sites across Slovakia to construct stand-level allometric relations of the biomass stock in tree components, i.e., leaves, branches, bark, stem under bark and roots, to mean stand diameter at stem base, i.e., at the ground level. Moreover, we calculated and modelled leaf characteristics, namely the specific leaf area (SLA), leaf area ratio (LAR) and leaf area index (LAI), at a stand level. The total tree biomass stock including all tree components ranged between 0.75 and 13.63 kg per m2, out of which the biomass of stem with bark was from 0.31 to 8.46 kg per m2. The biomass models showed that the contribution of roots (omitting those with a diameter under 2 mm) decreased with the increasing mean stand diameter at stem base, whereas the opposite pattern was observed for branches and stem biomass. Further, we found that the mean stand diameter at stem base was a good predictor of both LAR and LAI. The results indicated the high photosynthetic efficiency of European hornbeam leaves per one-sided surface leaf area. Moreover, the growth efficiency (GE), expressed as the biomass increment of woody parts per leaf area unit, of young European hornbeam trees was high. The models proved a close positive linear correlation between LAI and stand biomass stock that may be used for estimating the biomass in young stands from LAI that can be measured using non-destructive terrestrial or aerial methods. The results further indicated that young stands may sequester a non-negligible quantity of carbon; therefore, they should not be omitted from local or country-wide estimates of carbon stocks in forest vegetation.

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