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Part I: Calculating Carbon Storage in a Forest Stand Using Density and DBH Data

You will need to create a spreadsheet with the class forest density data and the related DBH values to perform these
calculations. Careful organization of your spreadsheet will make the completion of the final calculation of carbon
storage VERY EASY. It pays to label your cells, put units in adjacent cells, and use cell references in equations!!

Step One: Using the field data collected, calculate your estimate of the density of the trees in the forest stands you are
studying.

If you have collected data in different forest stands, you should examine your density estimates at the different
sites carefully – how similar are your density estimates? Do you think you are justified in using an average value
for forest density across the entire area of the forest, or is the forest a “patchy” place, with widely varying
densities?

Keep careful track of the units you are working in. We are going to want to be working with density data in
# of trees/hectare. Depending on your sampling method, you may have your estimate in trees per acre, convert
accordingly.

Keep track of this density value…it is going to be key!!

Step Two: Calculate the average DBH of the trees in the forest. (You will want to be careful here…you should probably
EXCLUDE all of the trees that are LESS THAN 4” DBH from your calculations here…we are just going to look at canopy
carbon sequestration)

1. through the magic of spreadsheets this is easy. Use the AVERAGE function in Excel. Note that your
number is in inches.

Step Three: You should have a density estimate and an average DBH estimate now. In order to begin the biomass
calculation, we need to convert our estimates into SI units so…
1. Make sure that your density estimate is in trees per hectare. If you need to convert acres to hectares, the
conversion is:
• 1 acre = 0.405 hectares
2. Take your DBH in inches and convert into DBH in cm
• 1 inch = 2.54 cm

Step Four: You will need to use a regression equation to estimate biomass from DBH data. There are a wide variety of
equations that can be found in forestry literature, a good general one to use if you don’t have a good sense of the specific
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species of tree you are working with is :

y = Exp(-2.69) * (DBH2.60)
(note: the r-squared value of this equation is 0.98, a nice fit!)

Plug the average DBH number you have (in cm) into that equation and it will return a value in kilograms.

That result is the per tree value, so now use your trees per hectare number to figure out the above ground biomass per
hectare. (or “ABD” for “Above-ground Biomass Density”) in Kg/ha.

***This value is roughly what we need to be considering when asking questions about the forested area the Hotchkiss
Heating Plant will consume on an annual basis. Recognize that no forestry operation would remove every tree from a
particular stand. Furthermore, depending on the species composition and the form of the individual trees, some of the wood
will be “merchantable timber” that has greater value as dimensional lumber, veneers, etc.

(calculations continue on next page)

We want to continue on to make an estimate of the carbon sequestration in the forest biomass, so there are a few more
calculations to perform:

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This equation is from Evaluation of Allometric Equations for Estimating Above-ground Tree Biomass and Stand Level C Accumulation,
Fults, J.C. and B. Boudreaux, http://www.atmos.anl.gov/GCEP/legacy/2001GCEPposters.html
Step Five: Trees aren’t all bole and branches…there is a substantial amount of biomass in the roots of trees as well! We
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can estimate that value using another equation : (“RBD” = Root Biomass Density)

!!!The thing here is that before we can use this equation, we need to have our Above Ground Biomass Density Estimate
in MEGAGRAMS PER HECTARE – BE SURE TO DO THE CONVERSION FROM Kg/ha before using this next
equation!!!

RBD = Exp (-1.085 + 0.9256 (ln ABD) )


quantities are in Megagrams per Hectare (Mg/ha)

Step Six: Take the ABD value from Step 4 and add it to the RBD value you just calculated, and you have a reasonable
estimate of the forest (canopy layer) biomass per hectare of the forest stand you are studying.

Step Seven: What we really want to know is how much biomass is in the entire forest, not just in one hectare. Well, the
Beeslick Brook Woods occupy approximately 81 hectares. So take the area of the forest in hectares and multiply that by
your results from step six (kg of biomass per hectare). The result of that calculation is your estimate of the total biomass
(tree and root) of the canopy trees in the Hotchkiss Woods!!

Step Eight: Finally, we are not really interested in the total biomass, but the amount of Carbon sequestered in that

forest. In general, it is estimated that approximately 49.7% of woody biomass is carbon.


So, using that ratio, you should be able to convert the total forest biomass (Step Seven) into total Carbon sequestered in
that forest.

Step Nine: In order for a tree to add 1 gram of carbon to itself, it had to suck 3.67 grams of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
(Mole ratio of CO2 to C = 44g/mol CO2 : 12g/mol C = 3.67). So if you want to know how much CO2 the forest had to
remove from the atmosphere in order to sequester the amount of carbon in its biomass, multiply the number from Step
Eight by 3.67.

Nice.

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Cairns, Michael A., Brown, Sandra, Helmer, Eileen H. And Greg A. Baumgardner (1997)
Root biomass allocation in the world’s upland forests. Oecologia 111, 1-11.
Part II: Calculating the Annual Carbon Sequestration Increment (or, how much
CO2 is the forest sucking up every year?)
In the last part of this exercise we estimated how much carbon is stored in a particular part of the Hotchkiss woods using a
combination of a density estimator, average DBH, and a couple of regression equations.

If you did a careful job setting up your spreadsheet in the last part, all you will have to do here is change your DBH
input value to reflect the increased diameter of the tree after one year of estimated growth and all of the subsequent
mass calculations should “self-update” to reflect that change. The difference in mass from one year to the next is then
easily converted to the amount of CO2 taken from the atmosphere and stored in the forest!!

In this part of the exercise we will estimate how much CO2 that forest stand is absorbing on an annual basis. In order to do
this we need to figure out what is the approximate growth increment of an average tree in the forest. We will use increment
borers to collect tree ring data from a selection of trees and we will analyze the cores to calculate an average growth rate
over time. Finally we will add that average increment to the current average DBH of the forest trees and recalculate the
biomass of the “average tree” using the same regression equations from Part I. The difference between “this year’s”
biomass and “next year’s” estimated biomass is proportional to the amount of CO2 absorbed by that tree in one year.
That number can then be expanded to a number for the whole forest.

So, here we go:


1. Collecting Tree Core data: using the increment borer, collect cores from a random sampling of trees in
the stand being studied. Store the core in the soda straws provided. Note the number on the scrap of tape
on the straw and in a data table record that number and the species of tree from which the core was taken.
Bring the cores and data table back to the lab.

2. Calculating Average Growth Increment: recall our discussion of the radial growth of woody plants and
how tree rings form in response to seasonal variation in growing conditions. Remove your core(s) from
their straws and place it under the dissecting microscope alongside a ruler. Looking through the scope,
count the number of rings you see along a 1 cm length of the core. Repeat this along different sections of
the core at least 2 more times. You should now have at least 3 observations of # rings/cm. Average
those values. However, the units we want are cm growth/year so take your average value and invert it.
Now we know how long it takes the tree to grow 1cm in radius, since we want the diameter increment,
you need to double your value.
For Example:
1) say you are looking at a tree core through the microscope and you collect the following data: 10 rings/cm; 12 rings/cm; 8
rings/cm.
2) The average is thus (10 + 12 + 8)/3 or 10 rings/cm (which is the same as saying it took an average of 10 years to grow 1 cm in
radius)
3) Take that average number and invert it to calculate cm/year: 10 years/cm  1 cm/10 years  0.10 cm/year in radius
4) We need the diameter though…so: 0.10 cm/year x 2 = 0.20 cm/year increase in diameter.

Thus, if you had a tree that measured 25.40 cm in diameter in 2006, we would expect it to be 25.40 + 0.20 = 25.60 cm in 2007.

Of course the growth rate of a tree changes over time and different species of trees have different intrinsic growth rates and different
sites provide different resources for growth…but we are looking to make broad first approximations here, so we are willing to surrender
some accuracy.
3.

4. Take your diameter increment and add it to the calculated average DBH from Part I of this investigation.
Plug that “new” DBH into the first regression equation to recalculate the Above Ground Biomass of the
one-year larger tree.and Root Biomass of the average tree.

5. Take that “new” biomass and subtract the “old” biomass from it. This number is the amount of biomass
that the average tree added to itself in one year.

6. Now take that value and figure out what fraction of that biomass is carbon (see step eight in part I). Then
take that value and figure out how much CO2 that is (see step nine in part I).

7. Take that value for the average tree (kg CO2 /tree) and multiply it by the estimated forest density
(trees/hectare) and you have kg CO2 /hectare. Take that and multiply by #hectares/forest and you have kg
CO2 /forest. We can now compare that number to the estimated annual CO2 output of the Hotchkiss
School…but that’s Part III and you’ll get those numbers next time.

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