Aboveground biomass estimation at different scales for subtropical forests in China

BACKGROUND: The accurate estimation of forest biomass at different scales is the critical step in the assessment of forest carbon stocks. We used three models at increasing scales: allometric model at ecoregional scale (model 1), dummy variable allometric model at both ecoregion and regional scales (model 2), and allometric model at regional scale (model 3) to estimate the aboveground biomass of six subtropical forests in China. Furthermore, we also tested whether wood density can improve the accuracy of the allometric model at regional scale. RESULTS: Aboveground biomass estimates for six subtropical forests were significantly affected by the ecoregions (p < 0.05). Model 1 and model 2 had good fitness with higher values of R (2), lower RSE (residual standard error) and MPSE (mean percent standard error) than model 3. The values of MPSE for model 1, model 2, and model 3 ranged from 2.79 to 30.40%, 5.15 to 40.94%, and 13.25 to 80.81% at ecoregion scale, respectively. At regional scale, MPSE of model 2 was very similar to that of model 1, and was less than model 3. New allometric models with wood density had greater R (2), lower RSE and MPSE than the traditional allometric models without wood density variable for six subtropical forests at regional scale. CONCLUSION: The dummy variable allometric models have better performances to estimate aboveground biomass for six subtropical forests in China, which provided an effective approach to improve the compatibility of forest biomass estimations from different scales. New allometric models with wood density substantially improved accuracies of aboveground biomass estimation for subtropical forests at regional scale. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40529-017-0199-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.