RAINFOR GEM Intensive Plots Manual (pdf) - University of Oxford

Tree #487 in Fragment E plot where the true POM was higher than the longest extensible ladder available locally (5.5 m) so a POM of5.0 m was chosen instead.We recommend that the largest trees (i.e. trees with a high POM (buttress trees or irregular trunks) forwhich a ladder is required) are simply noted on the first pass and censused altogether at a later point, which isgenerally a more efficient use of personnel. Sometimes very large trees are encountered where even a ladder isinadequate (e.g. no clean, regular trunk below 8 m), in which case either use an optical method for assessing thediameter (digital camera or optical dendrometer, see Phillips et al. 2009) or put the POM as high as you canreach and perhaps make some on-the-spot estimation to correct for over-/under-estimated biomass (write thisdown clearly in the comments column).Finally, don’t forget to write down (i) the date(s) when all trees were measured (inc. perhaps a later date forladder trees) and (ii) the full names of all people who were working on all those days.Timing: Tagging trees like this in 1 ha of forest in a 4-person team takes a minimum of 2-3 days.15