Trembling aspen biomass equations and carbon estimations for southern Saskatchewan copses

Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) copses are found throughtout
southern Saskatchewan and provide ecosystem services to adjacent
agricultural fields. Advancing our knowledge of carbon sequestration and
enhancing biodiversity conservation requires understanding the full range
of ecosystem services within these unique landscapes. Furthermore, there
is increasing attention toward regional-scale or ecosystem-specific
biomass equations compared to current national-scale equations. In this
study, we destructively sampled 54 trembling aspen trees from across
southern Saskatchewan to develop regional-scale biomass equations for the
area. We successfully developed two complementary biomass equations using
generalized additive models for diameter at breast height- (DBH) and
height-only with high explanatory power (87.1% and 74.9%, respectively).
We estimated 118.27 tonnes C ha-1 for aspen copses in Saskatchewan which
is lower than the 166.0 tonnes C ha-1 in the Boreal Forest. Our work also
shows that the developed biomass equations are more representative of
southern Saskatchewan as national-scale DBH-only biomass equations tend to
overestimate and DBH and Height biomass equations tend to underestimate
biomass. These newly developed biomass equations provide a new tool for
landowners and policy makers to understand carbon storage dynamics and the
landscape and regional level for Saskatchewan to support ongoing and
future sustainable land management practices.