Methods for Estimating Above-Ground Biomass

Above-ground biomass includes all biomass in living vegetation, both woody and herbaceous, above the soil including stems, stumps, branches, bark, seeds and foliage. Above-ground biomass is the most visible of all the carbon pools, and changes in it are an important indicator of change or of the impact of an intervention on benefits related to both carbon mitigation and other matters. Above-ground biomass is a key pool for most land-based projects. The features and the need for measuring and monitoring above-ground biomass, its importance to national greenhouse gas inventory and different project types as well as the frequency of measurement of the pool are described in Chapter 4. The different methods available for estimation and monitoring of above-ground biomass pool are described in Chapter 9. Among all the methods described in Chapter 9, the “plot method” is described in detail in this chapter.