The doi above is for this specific version of this dataset, which is currently the latest. Newer versions may be published in the future. For a link that will always point to the latest version, please use
doi: 10.4121/13677322

Lau Sarmiento, A.I. (Alvaro); Kim Calders; Harm Bartholomeus; Christopher Martius; Pasi Raumonen et. al. (2021): Data underlying the publication: 'Tree Biomass Equations from Terrestrial LiDAR: A Case Study in Guyana'. Version 1. 4TU.ResearchData. dataset. https://doi.org/10.4121/13677322.v1

Dataset

• Forestry Sciences

3D tree modelling, aboveground biomass estimation, destructive sampling, Guyana, LiDAR, local tree allometry, model evaluation, quantitative structural model

January 2017 - February 2017

CC BY 4.0

RefWorks, BibTeX, Reference Manager, Endnote, DataCite, NLM, DC, CFF

by A.I. (Alvaro) Lau Sarmiento , Kim Calders , Harm Bartholomeus, Christopher Martius , Pasi Raumonen , Martin Herold , Matheus Boni Vicari, Hansrajie Sukhdeo , Rosa C. Goodman

Large uncertainties in tree and forest carbon estimates weaken national efforts to accurately estimate aboveground biomass (AGB) for their national monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification system. Allometric equations to estimate biomass have improved, but remain limited. They rely on destructive sampling; large trees are under-represented in the data used to create them; and they cannot always be applied to different regions. These factors lead to uncertainties and systematic errors in biomass estimations. We developed allometric models to estimate tree AGB in Guyana. These models were based on tree attributes (diameter, height, crown diameter) obtained from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point clouds from 72 tropical trees and wood density. We validated our methods and models with data from 26 additional destructively harvested trees. We found that our best TLS-derived allometric models included crown diameter, provided more accurate AGB estimates ( R2 = 0.92–0.93) than traditional pantropical models (R2 = 0.85–0.89), and were especially accurate for large trees (diameter > 70 cm). The assessed pantropical models underestimated AGB by 4 to 13%. Nevertheless, one pantropical model (Chave et al. 2005 without height) consistently performed best among the pantropical models tested ( R2 = 0.89) and predicted AGB accurately across all size classes—which but for this could not be known without destructive or TLS-derived validation data. Our methods also demonstrate that tree height is difficult to measure in situ, and the inclusion of height in allometric models consistently worsened AGB estimates. We determined that TLS-derived AGB estimates were unbiased. Our approach advances methods to be able to develop, test, and choose allometric models without the need to harvest trees.

• 2021-02-04 first online, published, posted

4TU.ResearchData

txt csv RData mat

Tree Biomass Equations from Terrestrial LiDAR: A Case Study in Guyana

Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen

CAVElab-Computational & Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, Ghent

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Germany

Department of Geography, University College London, London

Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), Guyana

Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden