The paper presents a comprehensive review of the biomass equations for
65 North American tree species. All equations are of the form M = aD(
b), where M is the oven-dry weight of the biomass component of a tree
(kg), D is diameter at breast height (DBH) (cm), and a and b are param
eters. Equations for the following tree components were included in th
e review: total aboveground biomass, stem wood, stem bark, total stem
(wood and bark), foliage, and branches (wood and bark). A total of 803
equations are presented with the range of DBH values of the sample, s
ample size, coefficient of determination R-2, standard error of the es
timate, fitting method used to estimate the parameters a and b, correc
tion factor for a bias introduced by logarithmic transformation of the
data, site index and geographic location of the sampled stand(s), and
a reference to the paper in which the equation (or the data) was publ
ished. The review is a unique source of equations that can be used to
estimate tree biomass and/or to study the variation of biomass compone
nts for a tree species. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.