Biomass estimation in forest ecosystems - a review

Abstract

Forest ecosystems plays an important role in global warming serving as both sink and source of one of the prominent green house gases, carbon dioxide (CO2). Biomass estimation in forest ecosystems is an important aspect of forest management processes aimed at ensuring sustainability. The choice of appropriate method is crucial to achieve the desire objectives. This paper is a review of the works of several authors highlighting the methods, process, pros and cons involved in biomass estimation with the view of providing ample information towards making appropriate choice of biomass estimation methods in forest ecosystems for sustainable forest and environmental management. Findings from this review indicate that, while some method of above and below ground biomass estimation can be said to give accurate or near estimate, the choice of a method over another is not a clear cut issue. This is because the choice of a method over another is likely to be influenced by equipments/technology, finance, experience and manpower or the combination of more than one of these. The choice of a particular method should therefore be guided by the researcher’s objectives as well as available resources at the researcher’s disposal.

Keywords: Biomass estimation, above and belowground biomass, Forest ecosystems