Biomass component equations for Latin American species and groups of species

Studies dealing with the estimation of biomass, site productivity and the contribution of forests to the global carbon balance require the use of allometric equations. There have been a great number of equations developed to estimate biomass components of trees and shrubs in various ecosystems. However, there are less literature compilations that address the calculations of biomass components. I report a total of 229 sets of allometric equations to estimate biomass components for 102 species in 72 different forest communities of arid, semi-arid, subtropical, tropical and temperate Latin-American ecosystems. The selection of the appropriate allometric model is a key element in the accurate estimation of biomass, stand productivity, carbon stocks and fluxes, and as a consequence, it is important to apply special effort to the selection and estimation of biomass equations. I also discuss statistical methods of parameter estimation and recommend the dissection of two conventional allometric equations when biomass studies are conducted on a wide range of diameters. In order to use nondestructive procedures of biomass estimation such as the fractal theory, the null hypothesis that the mean slope b value is equal to 2.67 was rejected for Latin American biomass species. This information is critical for the establishment of environmental projects that aim to estimate conventional parameters (i.e., productivity, habitat quality and fuel wood) as well as environmental features (i.e., stocks and fluxes of carbon and nitrogen).