Tree Allometrics

Betula alleghaniensis / Foliage biomass

Canadian national equation, yellow birch, dbh and height (foliage; Table 4)

Foliage biomassBetula alleghaniensis · BetulaceaeCanadaRead from the original paper
Photo of Betula alleghaniensis
© Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
Equation

As printed (Eq. 3)

y foliage = β foliage1D βfoliage2Hβfoliage3 + efoliage

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

Foliage biomass = 0.1683 * D^1.2764
D
Diameter at breast height (1.3 m), cm

Foliage is leaves and twigs. Height drops out of the foliage term: the paper leaves its height exponent blank (—, not significantly different from zero). 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
bfoliage1 0.1683
Equation · Table 4, Yellow birch
bfoliage2 1.2764
Equation · Table 4, Yellow birch
bfoliage3 —
Equation · Table 4, Yellow birch
Yellow birch 280 25.7±0.9 16.4±0.3 494.4±34.4
Trees measured · Table 2 (No. of trees)
(0.8;70.3) (2.7;25.6) (0.1;2951.4)
Smallest DBH · Table 2, Yellow birch (ranges of dbh, height, total biomass)
Foliage 0.3125 0.41 7.6 1.45 0.5722 0.45 7.4 1.25
R² · Table 5, Yellow birch (AdjRSq in the dbh- and height-based set, second block)
Trees measured
280
DBH range
0.8–70.3 cm
Height range
2.7–25.6 m
R²
0.45
Method
Nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression with weight functions; additivity constrained so compartments sum to total
Where
Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Quebec (ENFOR archival data, early 1980s)
Last checked
2026-11-03
Calculate
7.7
Foliage biomass (kg)
3.62
Carbon (kg), ×0.47
13.3
CO₂e (kg), ×44/12
Fitted DBH range05101520510152025303540DBH (cm)Foliage biomass (kg)Foliage 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 = 157.77.7Computed from the printed form
computed from the published form at dbh = 20 cm, H = 15 m

Report a problem with this equation · JSON

Related

Compare these curves