Evaluating and improvement of tree stump volume prediction models in the eastern United States

Abstract

Forests are considered among the best carbon stocks on the planet. After forest harvest, the residual tree stumps persist on the site for years after harvest continuing to store carbon. A bigger concern is that the component ratio method requires a way to get stump volume to obtain total tree aboveground biomass. Therefore, the stump volumes contribute to the National Carbon Inventory. Agencies and organizations that are concerned with carbon accounting would benefit from an improved method for predicting tree stump volume. In this work, many model forms are evaluated for their accuracy in predicting stump volume. Stump profile and stump volume predictions were among the types of estimates done here for both outside and inside bark measurements. Fitting previously used models to a larger data set allows for improved regression coefficients and potentially more flexible and accurate models. The data set was compiled from a large selection of legacy data as well as some newly collected field measurements. Analysis was conducted for thirty of the most numerous tree species in the eastern United States as well as provide an improved method for inside and outside bark stump volume estimation.