Testing the generality of above‐ground biomass allometry across plant functional types at the continent scale

作者：Keryn I. Paul, Stephen H. Roxburgh, Jérôme Chave, Jacqueline R. England, Ayalsew Zerihun, Alison Specht, Tom Lewis, Lauren T. Bennett, Thomas Baker, Mark A. Adams, Dan Huxtable, Kelvin D. Montagu, Daniel S. Falster, Mike Feller, S.J. Sochacki, Peter Ritson, Gary Bastin, John R. Bartle, Dan T. Wildy, Trevor Hobbs, John S. Larmour, Rob Waterworth, Hugh Stewart, Justin Jonson, David I. Forrester, Grahame Applegate, Daniel S. Mendham, Matt Bradford, Anthony P. O’Grady, Daryl Green, R. A. Sudmeyer, S.J. Rance, John Turner, Craig V. M. Barton, Elizabeth H. Wenk, T. S. Grove, P. M. Attiwill, Elizabeth Pinkard, Don Butler, Kim Brooksbank, Beren Spencer, Peter Snowdon, Nick O’Brien, Michael Battaglia, David M. Cameron, Steve Hamilton, Geoff McAuthur, Jenny Sinclair · 发表于：Global Change Biology · 年份：2015 · DOI：10.1111/gcb.13201 · 被引用次数：209 · 研究领域：Forest ecology and management、Bioenergy crop production and management、Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems

Accurate ground-based estimation of the carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems is critical to quantifying the global carbon budget. Allometric models provide cost-effective methods for biomass prediction. But do such models vary with ecoregion or plant functional type? We compiled 15 054 measurements of individual tree or shrub biomass from across Australia to examine the generality of allometric models for above-ground biomass prediction. This provided a robust case study because Australia includes ecoregions ranging from arid shrublands to tropical rainforests, and has a rich history of biomass research, particularly in planted forests. Regardless of ecoregion, for five broad categories of plant functional type (shrubs; multistemmed trees; trees of the genus Eucalyptus and closely related genera; other trees of high wood density; and other trees of low wood density), relationships between biomass and stem diameter were generic. Simple power-law models explained 84-95% of the variation in biomass, with little improvement in model performance when other plant variables (height, bole wood density), or site characteristics (climate, age, management) were included. Predictions of stand-based biomass from allometric models of varying levels of generalization (species-specific, plant functional type) were validated using whole-plot harvest data from 17 contrasting stands (range: 9-356 Mg ha(-1) ). Losses in efficiency of prediction were <1% if generalized models were used in plac...