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

Example 4: Aerial (or prop) roots are not currently covered adequately by the RAINFOR-GEM protocols. Forexample, this tree spotted at Khajuraho, India, where passing a measuring tape around the ‘extra’ stems to theleft would substantially overestimate woody biomass. Because no RAINFOR, AfriTRON or GEM plots havebeen established in mangroves or banyan groves, this is not currently a problem (though it may be in thefuture). This example shows that you can find trees that are not covered by the protocols as they currentlystand 37 . In such cases, remember that the primary purpose of these measurements is to estimate biomass andsimply use your common sense 38 .Example 5: Finally, a test. This tree is at Wittenham Clumps (Oxfordshire, UK) in 2011. Where would you tagit? Which side would the tag go? Where’s the POM and how would you measure the diameter?37 A similar situation arises with cabled lianas where the cables are too solid to move together.38 As Condit (1998) put it: “There will inevitably be some trunks that simply defy measure, for instance when completely buried in astrangler fig. The best possible measurement must be taken—at least some estimate is better than none—and the location of the POMpainted and recorded. As long as these cases are rare, the best estimate of the team leader is acceptable”.26