This data set is a compilation of biomass sampling of 15,054 individual measurements of 274 tree and shrub species across 826 sites in the Australian mainland, reported in 94 studies between 1950 and 2015. Various methods were used across sites, but all involved destructive harvests of individual trees or shrubs and measuring the fresh weight of above-ground biomass. Sub-sampling was used to determine moisture content, after which dry weight of the above-ground biomass was calculated.
See publication for details: "Keryn I. Paul, John Larmour, Alison Specht, Ayalsew Zerihun, Peter Ritson, Stephen H. Roxburgh, Stan Sochacki, Tom Lewis, Craig V.M. Barton, Jacqueline R. England, Michael Battaglia, Anthony O'Grady, Elizabeth Pinkard, Grahame Applegate, Justin Jonson, Kim Brooksbank, Rob Sudmeyer, Dan Wildy, Kelvin D. Montagu, Matt Bradford, Don Butler, Trevor Hobbs, Testing the generality of below-ground biomass allometry across plant functional types, Forest Ecology and Management. 432: 102-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.08.043.
Paul, K.I., Larmour, J., Specht, A., Zerihun, A., Ritson, P., Roxburgh, S.H., Sochacki, S., Lewis, T., Barton, C.V.M., England, J.R., Battaglia, M., O’Grady, A., Pinkard, E., Applegate, G., Jonson, J., Brooksbank, K., Sudmeyer, R., Wildy, D., Montagu, K.D., Bradford, M., Butler, D., Hobbs, T., 2019. Testing the generality of below-ground biomass allometry across plant functional types. Forest Ecology and Management 432, 102–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.08.043
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
The authors would like to thank the Australian Government's Department of the Environment for funding this work. Assistance with data collation was also provided by Coral Allan, Grant Allan, John Bartle, Jason Barnetson, Rick Bennett, Coline Bourru, Mark Brammar, Steven Bray, Mila Bristow, Don Butler, Rob Chambers, Vanessa Chewings, Robin Cromer, Mike Cully, Eve Damm, Micah Davies, Alex Drew, Robert Eager, Tom Fairman, Ben Finn, David Freudenberger, Sean Gleason, Bob Hingston, Mark Hunt, Bruce Hogg, Laura Kmoch, Rob Law, Hamish Luck, Tracey May, Rick Giles, Gordon McLachlan, Geoff Minchin, Simon Murphy, Matt Nicholson, Jaymie Norris, Len Norris, Craig Neumann, Anthony O'Connell, David Osborne, Dailiang Peng, John Raison, Sandra Roberts, Harry Roberts, Ben Rose, Katelyn Ryan, Tim Smith, Adam Smith, Scott Swift, Mervyn Tucker, Brendan Vollemaere, Paul Warburton, Peter Walsh, Ray Wilson, Stephanie Wilson, Alex Winter, Ralph Woodford, Fabinao Ximenes, and Byron Yeo. The authors would also like to thank the property owners and managers who allowed us to sample their trees for above-ground biomass. In addition to the organisations of the contributing authors, we also acknowledge Oil Mallee Association of Australia Inc, Carbon Neutral, Northern Agricultural Catchments Council, Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting, RIRDC, University of New England, Queensland Forestry Department, and WA Plantation Resources. Older datasets of D. Ashton, J. Lewis, W. Forrest, J. Dargavel, W. Westman, R. Rogers, P. Baldwin, H. Stewart, F. Hingston, M. Lambert, R. Cromer are acknowledged.
Purpose
The data on individual tree or shrub biomass were derived from numerous projects over the last five decades. Support was given to collate these datasets under the Complex Woody Systems Project (MDP-CWS) funded by the Australian Department of the Environment's Methodology Development Program and CSIRO. The objective of the MDP-CWS project was to develop tools and information to underpin increased land manager participation in the domestic carbon market; the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). However, the intention is that this database will be expanded over time and have broader use beyond supporting carbon accounting methodologies.