Brian S. Cade
James J. Sartoris
Joan S. Daniels
2010
<p><span>Assessment of emergent vegetation biomass can be time consuming and labor intensive. To establish a less onerous, yet accurate method, for determining emergent plant biomass than by direct measurements we collected vegetation data over a six-year period and modeled biomass using easily obtained variables: culm (stem) diameter, culm height and culm density. From 1998 through 2005, we collected emergent vegetation samples (</span><i class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">Schoenoplectus californicus</i><span> and</span><i class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">Schoenoplectus acutus</i><span>) at a constructed treatment wetland in San Jacinto, California during spring and fall. Various statistical models were run on the data to determine the strongest relationships. We found that the nonlinear relationship: </span><span id="IEq1" class="InlineEquation"><span id="MathJax-Element-1-Frame" class="MathJax" data-mathml="<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>C</mi><mi>B</mi><mo>=</mo><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><msub><mi>&#x03B2;</mi><mn>0</mn></msub></mrow><mi>D</mi><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><msup><mi>H</mi><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><msub><mi>&#x03B2;</mi><mn>1</mn></msub></mrow></mrow></msup></mrow><mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"><msup><mn>10</mn><mi>&#x03B5;</mi></msup></mrow></math>"><span id="MathJax-Span-1" class="math"><span><span><span id="MathJax-Span-2" class="mrow"><i><span id="MathJax-Span-3" class="mi">C</span><span id="MathJax-Span-4" class="mi">B</span></i><span id="MathJax-Span-5" class="mo">=</span><span id="MathJax-Span-6" class="texatom"><span id="MathJax-Span-7" class="mrow"><span id="MathJax-Span-8" class="msubsup"><span><span><span id="MathJax-Span-9" class="mi">β</span></span><sub><span><span id="MathJax-Span-10" class="mn">0</span></span></sub></span></span></span></span><span id="MathJax-Span-11" class="mi">D</span><span id="MathJax-Span-12" class="texatom"><span id="MathJax-Span-13" class="mrow"><span id="MathJax-Span-14" class="msubsup"><span><span><span id="MathJax-Span-15" class="mi">H</span></span><sup><span><span id="MathJax-Span-16" class="texatom"><span id="MathJax-Span-17" class="mrow"><span id="MathJax-Span-18" class="texatom"><span id="MathJax-Span-19" class="mrow"><span id="MathJax-Span-20" class="msubsup"><span><span><span id="MathJax-Span-21" class="mi">β</span></span><sub><span><span id="MathJax-Span-22" class="mn">1</span></span></sub></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></sup></span></span></span></span><span id="MathJax-Span-23" class="texatom"><span id="MathJax-Span-24" class="mrow"><span id="MathJax-Span-25" class="msubsup"><span><span><span id="MathJax-Span-26" class="mn">10</span></span><sup><span><span id="MathJax-Span-27" class="mi">ε</span></span></sup></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span>, where </span><i class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">CB</i><span> was dry culm biomass (g m</span><sup><span>−2</span></sup><span>), </span><i class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">DH</i><span> was density of culms × average height of culms in a plot, and β</span><sub><span>0</span></sub><span> and β</span><sub><span>1</span></sub><span> were parameters to estimate, proved to be the best fit for predicting dried-live above-ground biomass of the two </span><i class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">Schoenoplectus</i><span> species. The random error distribution, ε, was either assumed to be normally distributed for mean regression estimates or assumed to be an unspecified continuous distribution for quantile regression estimates.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.1007/s13157-010-0018-x
en
Springer
Measuring bulrush culm relationships to estimate plant biomass within a southern California treatment wetland
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