SEMI-DESTRUCTIVE APPROACH IN DEVELOPING ALLOMETRIC BIOMASS FOR CHUKRASIA TABULARIS IN SYLHET REGION OF BANGLADESH

Species-specific biomass allometric model was crucial to measure tree biomass especially on major tree species in forests in view of their ecological and economic values. The dependent on common biomass models during forest inventory may produce inaccurate estimates since tree structure and growth varied from species and regions. In this aspect, the study aimed to derive the best-fit allometric model to estimate aboveground biomass of Chukrasia tabularis in Sylhet Region of Bangladesh. A semi destructive method where total height (H), diameter at breast height (D) and wood density were used as independent variables to check the efficiency of the commonly used pan-tropical models in biomass estimation of the species. A total of 120 individual trees were purposively selected for model development and validation. Ten regression equations were tested in the study for biomass allometric model and seven for predicting height-diameter at breast height relationship. The best-fit model was selected based on adjusted R-2, residual standard error, the Akaike information criterion and Akaike weights. Finally, the derived model was compared with the commonly used pan-tropical biomass models in terms of model efficiency and root mean square error. The best-fitted biomass allometric model for C. tabularis was Ln (TAGB) = -3.571 + 1.006 x Ln (D-2 x H). The derived best-fit model showed higher efficiency in biomass estimation compared to the commonly used pan-tropical models.