This study provides information on the TAGB and structures
of forests that are located in the arc of deforestation described by Fearnside
(1990) and are representative of those associated with deforestation in this
region. TAGB and structure was measured on 20 different forest stands and
included components not often measured in forest inventories. Estimates of
tree density, BA, QSD, and biomass of non-tree components are often used
to formulate TAGB models based on forest inventories (Brown and Lugo, 1992).
The results from this study explain some discrepancies between estimates
of TAGB derived from field studies and those from forest inventories. For
example, forest inventories rarely measure palms and trees <10 cm dbh,
yet these components comprised an average of 12% of TAGB. The RADAMBRASIL
forest inventory was limited to quantification of trees >31.8 cm dbh. In
this study, live trees 30 cm dbh only comprised 56% of TAGB (range, 47¯72%).
The non-tree, dead components and smaller wood particles of TAGB are important
because they most likely will completely burn during slash fires following
deforestation and, therefore, contribute significantly to CO2 and trace gas
flux to the atmosphere (Kauffman and Guild). Underestimating these components
could lead to errors in estimating C pools of standing forests as well as
emissions arising from forest conversion. The results from this study, by
clarifying forest structure, could be useful to improve TAGB estimates based
on other data sets.
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