Tree Allometrics

Abies balsamea / Aboveground biomass

Canadian national equation, balsam fir, dbh only (sum of wood, bark, branches, foliage; Table 3)

Aboveground biomassAbies balsamea · PinaceaeCanadaRead from the original paper
Photo of Abies balsamea
© Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
Equation

As printed (Eq. 2)

y wood = β wood1D βwood2 + ewood

In this library's units, ready to compute (kg)

Aboveground biomass = 0.0534 * D^2.403 + 0.0115 * D^2.3484 + 0.007 * D^2.5406 + 0.084 * D^1.6695
D
Diameter at breast height (1.3 m), cm

Total aboveground biomass = wood + bark + branches + foliage, each fitted as its own equation; the total is their sum (additivity by construction). r2 is the adjusted R² (AdjRSq) of this compartment in Table 5. Fitted on the original scale (weighted nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression), so there is no back-transform correction. Dead branches, cones and fruits are not part of aboveground biomass in this work (Materials). Stand type was not always recorded. Ung, Bernier & Guo (2008) later revised parameters for some species with British Columbia data; not used here.

Source
y bark = β bark1D βbark2 + e bark
Equation · Eq. 2
y branches = β branches1D βbranches2 + e branches
Equation · Eq. 2
y foliage = β foliage1D βfoliage2 + efoliage
Equation · Eq. 2
Balsam fir bwood1 0.0534
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bwood2 2.4030
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bbark1 0.0115
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bbark2 2.3484
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bbranches1 0.0070
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bbranches2 2.5406
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bfoliage1 0.0840
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
bfoliage2 1.6695
Equation · Table 3, Balsam fir
Balsam fir 639 16.4±0.4 12.2±0.2 103.4±4.7
Trees measured · Table 2 (No. of trees)
(1.5;42.4) (1.6;52.2) (0.5;649.0)
Smallest DBH · Table 2, Balsam fir (ranges of dbh, height, total biomass)
Total 0.0047 0.97 20.1 3.63 0.0073 0.98 17.6 3.38
R² · Table 5, Balsam fir (AdjRSq in the dbh-based set, first block)
Trees measured
639
DBH range
1.5–42.4 cm
R²
0.97
Method
Nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression with weight functions; additivity constrained so compartments sum to total
Where
Canada: Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan (ENFOR archival data, early 1980s)
Last checked
2026-11-03
Calculate
111
Aboveground biomass (kg)
52.2
Carbon (kg), ×0.47
192
CO₂e (kg), ×44/12
Fitted DBH range0100200300400500600510152025303540DBH (cm)Aboveground biomass (kg)Aboveground biomass

Shaded: the DBH range the model was fitted on. Other inputs held at the values above.

Checks this equation passes

On every build, the library's form and the paper's own form (in its units) must both give these values within 1%.

InputsExpectedWe getFrom
D = 20111111Computed from the printed form
computed from the published form at dbh = 20 cm

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