A study on general allometric relationships developed for biomass estimation in regional scale taking the example of Tectona grandis grown in Bundelkhand region of India

Abstract

In this communication an effort has been made to develop a general non-site specific allometric relationship taking Tectona grandis grown in semi-arid Bundelkhand region without harvesting any tree. To determine the most appropriate predictor variable for producing the relationship, different physiological parameters of this tree species like diameter at breast height (dbh), basal diameter, tree height, forking height, collar diameter, etc. were collected from the standing trees from MP part of Bundelkhand region, comprising a total of 45 sites of 4 districts namely Guna, Vidisha, Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh. The dataset contained 418 trees with biomass ranging from 12.79 kg/tree to 12707.92 kg/tree, height ranging from 1.5 to 18.5 m and dbh ranging from 0.03 to 0.44 m. For developing the models; dbh, height, dbh × height and dbh2 × height were used as predictor variables. All four contrasting sites were taken for developing allometric models and after examining model residuals and site-specific relationships, it was found that using dbh2 × height alone as the predictor variable produced the most stable model. Thus it makes regional estimation of aboveground biomass production easier with precision as accurate as site-specific allometry.