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Full-Text Articles in Systems Biology
Estimating Herbaceous Biomass Of Grassland Vegetation Using The Reference Unit Method, Eric D. Boyda, Jack L. Bulter, Lan Xu
Estimating Herbaceous Biomass Of Grassland Vegetation Using The Reference Unit Method, Eric D. Boyda, Jack L. Bulter, Lan Xu
The Prairie Naturalist
Aboveground net primary production provides valuable information on wildlife habitat, fire fuel loads, and forage availability. Aboveground net primary production in herbaceous plant communities is typically measured by clipping aboveground biomass. However, the high costs associated with physically harvesting plant biomass may prevent collecting sufficient data to account for natural spatial and temporal variability of vegetation at a landscape scale. Various double-sampling techniques have been developed to increase sample size while reducing cost. We applied a biomass estimation technique previously developed for estimating shrub biomass using representative samples or “reference units” to estimate herbaceous grassland biomass. Our reference units consisted …