Allometric equations for estimating the above-ground biomass of Castanopsis indica at juvenile stage

Abstract

Most of the Castanopsis indica forest of Nepal in the midhill region was degraded in the recent past especially due to policy conflict between government and local users. But after the introduction of community forestry system, these forests have been rejuvenated gradually. Therefore, the proportion of the juvenile plants in forests is very high and the contribution of juvenile plants on total biomass production cannot be overlooked. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop juvenile biomass models. We measured diameter at 10 cm above ground level (D), total height (H), density (?) and total biomass (W) of indica juveniles. The models were estimated using “library (minpack.lm)” in R. The estimated models were evaluated by using numerical fit statistics and graphical analyses. The selected model Wi = 52.28 (D_i²H_i)^0.89 explained >95% juvenile biomass of indica with RSE=42.34g, AIC=406.8 and average deviation=13.26.

Banko Janakari, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 14-22