Canada's Forest Inventory 2001 - Publications du gouvernement du ...

3.11 Biomass
Biomass is estimated using the methods described in section 2.7, but more specifically, stem wood,
stem bark, branch and foliage biomass, as well as an estimate of dead biomass, in tonnes per hectare
are predicted for each record in the CanFI2001 volume tables. However, unlike volume values, biomass
values are aggregated across tree species. Four biomass components and the estimate of dead biomass are
stored for each record, regardless of how many species may be represented in that record. The estimated
biomass reflects species diversity, as it is comprised of a weighted average that includes all the species
listed, but retains only one value for each component. These biomass-volume tables, along with the
look-up tables for vegetated areas with no volumes, are then merged with the CanFI2001 area tables,
and inherit the classifiers stored there. From these, summary tables, maps, and figures can be produced:
Figure 39, which shows the total living and dead biomass by province, and Figure 40, the map of average
biomass, are examples.
Percentage distribution of live biomass among the four components, summarized for leading coniferous
and broadleaved species, are shown in Figure 40, and details for grouped leading species are shown in
Table 16; full details by individual leading species are provided in Appendix I: Table I-30. The proportion
contributed by stemwood is nearly identical for coniferous and broadleaved species: the proportionally
thicker bark and branches of broadleaved species contributes more to biomass than do those of coniferous
species; however, foliage contributes almost twice as much to coniferous biomass than to broadleaved
biomass.
The map of average biomass (Figure 41) shows biomass derived from the forest inventory only:
no estimation of biomass associated with agricultural crops on the prairies and in southern Ontario is
included.
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