Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

The study was carried out in 39- and 43-year-old stands of noble fir (Abies procera Rehder) grown in the Rogów Arboretum of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (Poland). The main objectives of our study were (1) to estimate stem volume over bark of noble fir grown out of its natural range, (2) to develop suitable allometric equations for estimating aboveground woody biomass components and (3) to estimate aboveground woody biomass components using site-specific allometric equations and to compare them with biomass estimated using allometric equations developed in stands grown within natural range of noble fir. The study showed that the mean DBH of trees was 20.14 cm in the younger stand and 22.25 cm in the older stand. The basal area of the 39-year-old stand was 49.01 m2·ha-1 and 43-year-old stand was 47.53 m2·ha-1. Based on the developed equation stem volume over bark was 374.87 m3·ha-1 and 356.24 m3·ha-1 in the 39- and 43-year-old stands, respectively. Based on the developed site-specific allometric equations total aboveground woody biomass in the 39-year-old stand was 189 Mg·ha-1 whereas in the 43-year-old stand it was 184 Mg·ha-1. Branch biomass in both stands equaled 19.9% of total aboveground wood biomass. Total aboveground woody biomass, estimated by allometric equations published by Ter-Mikaelian and Korzukhin [1997], equaled 233 Mg·ha-1 and 228 Mg·ha-1 in the 39- and 43-year-old stands, respectively. This means that the aboveground woody biomass is overestimated by ca. 23% in comparison with biomass estimated by our site-specific allometric equation. Generally, the existing equations published by Ter-Mikaelian and Korzukhin [1997] overestimated total aboveground woody biomass and stem biomass, while branch biomass was underestimated across all tree sizes compared to directly obtained biomass data.