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- Title
Improved Branch Volume Prediction of Multi-Stemmed Shrubs: Implications in Shrub Volume Inventory and Fuel Characterization.
- Authors
Yuan, Chuan; Zhou, Jiayu; Xiang, Wenhua; Lu, Nan; Hu, Yanting; Guo, Li; Wang, Yi; Chen, Weiliang; Gao, Guangyao; Tang, Qiang; Wang, Sheng; Cheng, Xian; Gao, Jie; Wei, Xiaohua
- Abstract
Accurately estimating the volume of woody vegetation is critical for assessing fuel characteristics and associated wildfire risks in shrublands. However, few studies have investigated the branch volume of multi-stemmed shrubs, a dominant life form in wildfire-prone drylands. This study predicts branch volume using the inflection point of branch diameter. This inflection point, identified using the "Segmented" package in R, marks the transition from a gradual decrease to a significant reduction in diameter along the stem. The volume of branch segment above this point is calculated as a cone, and below it, a cylinder. We validated this method on various species such as Caragana korshinskii, Salix psammophila, and Vitex negundo. Good estimations were achieved with an average 19.2% bias relative to reference branch volumes, outperforming conventional methods that subjectively treated the whole branch as either a cylinder (96.9% bias) or a cone (−34.4% bias). We tallied branches by basal diameter and provided inventories for easily locating the inflection point, as well as using two-way branch volume tables for rapid volume predictions in shrubland. In general, we developed an effective method for estimating branch volumes of multi-stemmed shrubs, enabling its application to larger-scale shrubland volumetric prediction. This advancement supports wildfire hazard assessment and informs decision-making in fuel treatments.
- Subjects
WILDFIRE risk; RISK assessment; INFLECTION (Grammar); SHRUBLANDS; SHRUBS; FUEL reduction (Wildfire prevention)
- Publication
Forests (19994907), 2024, Vol 15, Issue 8, p1437
- ISSN
1999-4907
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/f15081437