Tree Allometrics

Picea glauca / Branch biomass

Canadian national equation, white spruce, dbh and height (branches; Table 4)

Branch biomassPicea glauca · PinaceaeCanadaRead from the original paper
Photo of Picea glauca
© Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
Equation

As printed (Eq. 3)

y branches = β branches1D βbranches2Hβbranches3 + e branches

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

Branch biomass = 0.0325 * D^2.8573 * H^(-0.9127)
D
Diameter at breast height (1.3 m), cm
H
Total tree height, m

All branches, cut at the stem base (live branches; dead branches excluded). 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
bbranches1 0.0325
Equation · Table 4, White spruce
bbranches2 2.8573
Equation · Table 4, White spruce
bbranches3 –0.9127
Equation · Table 4, White spruce
White spruce 832 16.6±0.3 12.9±0.2 123.6±5.7
Trees measured · Table 2 (No. of trees)
(1.8;51.9) (1.1;37.5) (0.4;1344.6)
Smallest DBH · Table 2, White spruce (ranges of dbh, height, total biomass)
Branches 0.0005 0.67 11.3 3.88 0.0004 0.70 10.7 3.86
R² · Table 5, White spruce (AdjRSq in the dbh- and height-based set, second block)
Trees measured
832
DBH range
1.8–51.9 cm
Height range
1.1–37.5 m
R²
0.7
Method
Nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression with weight functions; additivity constrained so compartments sum to total
Where
Canada: Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon (ENFOR archival data, early 1980s)
Last checked
2026-11-03
Calculate
Height from
14.3
Branch biomass (kg)
6.73
Carbon (kg), ×0.47
24.7
CO₂e (kg), ×44/12
Fitted DBH range020406080100120510152025303540DBH (cm)Branch biomass (kg)Branch 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 = 20, H = 1514.314.3Computed from the printed form
computed from the published form at dbh = 20 cm, H = 15 m

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