Tree biomass estimation of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) based on Bayesian method

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 20;8(11):e79868. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079868. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) is the most important conifer species for timber production with huge distribution area in southern China. Accurate estimation of biomass is required for accounting and monitoring Chinese forest carbon stocking. In the study, allometric equation W = a(D2H)b was used to analyze tree biomass of Chinese fir. The common methods for estimating allometric model have taken the classical approach based on the frequency interpretation of probability. However, many different biotic and abiotic factors introduce variability in Chinese fir biomass model, suggesting that parameters of biomass model are better represented by probability distributions rather than fixed values as classical method. To deal with the problem, Bayesian method was used for estimating Chinese fir biomass model. In the Bayesian framework, two priors were introduced: non-informative priors and informative priors. For informative priors, 32 biomass equations of Chinese fir were collected from published literature in the paper. The parameter distributions from published literature were regarded as prior distributions in Bayesian model for estimating Chinese fir biomass. Therefore, the Bayesian method with informative priors was better than non-informative priors and classical method, which provides a reasonable method for estimating Chinese fir biomass.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bayes Theorem*
  • Biomass
  • Cunninghamia*

Grants and funding

The research was sponsored by the Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry (No. RIF2013-09) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31300537, No. 31370629). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.