Tree Allometrics

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Root biomass from basal area at breast height, all four species

Root biomassFour Sudanian savanna-woodland species (Anogeissus leiocarpa, Detarium microcarpum, Piliostigma thonningii, Vitellaria paradoxa)Burkina FasonaturalRead from the original paper
Many species, no single photo
Equation

As printed (Table 2, BA1.3 row, All species, p. 7)

BA1.3 1084.9 603.0 0.88 0.09 0.56 0.85 <0.0001

In this library's units, ready to compute (kg)

Root biomass = 1084.9 * (0.7853982 * (D/100)^2)^0.88
D
Diameter at breast height (1.3 m), cm

Not one of the authors' best models (they recommend basal area at 0.2 m, BA0.2, which has no canonical diameter variable here, and BA×H terms); this is the breast-height-only fit from Table 2, included because it can be used with DBH. Paper input is basal area at 1.3 m in m2; here BA1.3 is computed from DBH as pi*D^2/4 (0.7853982*(D/100)^2) in both forms. Fit dbh range is the printed C1.3 min and max divided by pi (circumference at 1.3 m, Table 1). BGB is stump plus coarse roots (roots over 5 mm for the non-protected species) from excavation, oven-dry. Table 2 prints a and b to 1 or 2 decimals. No correction factor is stated. Only the BA1.3-only models are included: the paper's height columns are labelled cm while the coefficients only make sense with H in metres, so the BA×H and H models are left out. Generic model fitted across the four species. For forked trees the paper's C1.3 is the quadratic sum of stem circumferences (Eq. 1, p. 4), so D here is the equivalent diameter sqrt(ΣDi²).

Source
BGB = a × BA1.3b + ε
Equation · Eq. 4, p. 5
basal area (m2) at 1.3 m above ground level (BA1.3)
Units · Table 2 caption, p. 7
All species 100 31.9±1.6 8 86 21.6±1.4 5 75
Trees measured · Table 1, p. 4 (N, then C0.2, C1.3 columns)
Trees measured
100
DBH range
1.59–23.87 cm
R²
0.56
Method
nonlinear regression, BGB = a × BA1.3^b
Where
Tiogo and Laba state forests, Burkina Faso (north Sudanian savanna-woodland)
Last checked
2026-11-01
Calculate
15.24
Root biomass (kg)
7.164
Carbon (kg), ×0.47
26.27
CO₂e (kg), ×44/12
Fitted DBH range050100150200510152025303540DBH (cm)Root biomass (kg)Root biomass

Shaded: the DBH range the model was fitted on. Other inputs held at the values above.

Checks this equation passes

On every build, the library's form and the paper's own form (in its units) must both give these values within 1%.

InputsExpectedWe getFrom
D = 1015.215.2Computed from the printed form
computed from the published form with BA1.3 = pi*D^2/4 in m2

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