Forest Floor Biomass

Aggregate ash-free sampled forest-floor dry mass by actual combined core area; ash subtraction is a protocol-dependent organic biomass proxy, not a litter-only wet mass or homogeneous-layer assumption.

Description

Ash-free dry mass is a protocol-dependent proxy for organic forest-floor biomass.

Ash-free dry mass is a protocol-dependent proxy for organic forest-floor biomass. Pooling mass over sampled area handles unequal core sizes.^[1]

When to use Forest Floor Biomass

Use this tool to aggregate ash-free sampled forest-floor dry mass by actual combined core area; ash subtraction is a protocol-dependent organic biomass proxy, not a litter-only wet mass or homogeneous-layer assumption.

Gather the tree inventory, plot measurements or model parameters. Check diameter, area, time and moisture conventions; keep paired observations aligned.

How to use Forest Floor Biomass and understand its results

Gather the tree inventory, plot measurements or model parameters. Check diameter, area, time and moisture conventions; keep paired observations aligned.
Enter coreDryMassesGrams, coreAshMassesGrams, sampledCoreAreasM2 using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read ashFreeFloorDryMassKgPerM2, ashFreeFloorDryBiomassTonnesPerHa. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
coreDryMassesGrams	Core dry masses grams	list of number	Required
coreAshMassesGrams	Core ash masses grams	list of number	Required
sampledCoreAreasM2	Sampled core areas m2	list of number	Required

Pair nonnegative dry and ash masses, ash≤dry for each core, with positive sampled areas. Return pooled ash-free dry kg/m² and tonnes/ha.

Paired lists must be nonempty and have equal lengths.

kg/m²=Σ(dry grams−ash grams)/(1000Σcore m²); tonnes/ha=10 × kg/m²

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
ashFreeFloorDryMassKgPerM2	Ash free floor dry mass kg per m2	number
ashFreeFloorDryBiomassTonnesPerHa	Ash free floor dry biomass tonnes per ha	number

json

{
  "input": {
    "coreDryMassesGrams": [
      100,
      200
    ],
    "coreAshMassesGrams": [
      10,
      20
    ],
    "sampledCoreAreasM2": [
      0.1,
      0.2
    ]
  },
  "output": {
    "ashFreeFloorDryMassKgPerM2": 0.8999999999999999,
    "ashFreeFloorDryBiomassTonnesPerHa": 9
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

Ash subtraction depends on the preparation protocol. Wet mass, litter-only mass and unsampled layer structure are not inferred.

Numeric inputs and returned numeric values must be finite; an unrepresentable returned value produces an error. Numeric lists are limited to 100,000 entries; the rules above may require smaller limits. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Prescribed Burn Consumption Tonnes Per Unit Area: Difference matched pre/post dry-load measurements with physical area weights, retaining negative apparent consumption rather than clipping measurement/background changes; not a prescribed-burn recipe. For a complementary task, use Site Productivity Index: Compare accounted standing+removed+mortality production to a caller age/area-compatible reference; unlike standing-volume MAI, removals and mortality are included, with no universal yield class.

References

Forest Floor Biomass — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Prescribed Burn Consumption Tonnes Per Unit Area
Difference matched pre/post dry-load measurements with physical area weights, retaining negative apparent consumption rather than clipping measurement/background changes; not a prescribed-burn recipe.
Site Productivity Index
Compare accounted standing+removed+mortality production to a caller age/area-compatible reference; unlike standing-volume MAI, removals and mortality are included, with no universal yield class.