Functions for estimating aboveground biomass of birch in Norway

The data consisted of 67 trees sampled throughout Norway. A total of 14 component functions were developed for total aboveground, total stem, stemwood, stem bark, live crown, live branch, leaf, and dead branch biomass using combinations of diameter at breast height and height as predictor variables.

Application of the derived functions to existing local southern Norwegian mountain birch and regional Swedish biomass datasets indicated an overall good predictive ability of the developed functions. However, the functions produced slight underestimates, suggesting that the respective birch populations had differing biomass allocation patterns. When the developed functions were applied to Norwegian National Forest Inventory data, they produced slightly higher biomass stock and stock change estimates than what is obtained using existing Swedish functions.