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Variant of estimation method of above‐ground plant biomass in grassland with gamma model 1. Use of an electronic capacitance probe
Author(s) -
Tsutsumi Michio,
Itano Shiro
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
grassland science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.388
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1744-697X
pISSN - 1744-6961
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-697x.2005.00036.x
Subject(s) - quadrat , biomass (ecology) , grassland , sampling (signal processing) , statistics , mathematics , capacitance , environmental science , soil science , analytical chemistry (journal) , ecology , chemistry , biology , engineering , filter (signal processing) , electrical engineering , chromatography , shrub , electrode
We propose the following method for estimating above‐ground plant biomass (biomass, hereafter) in grassland as a variant of Shiyomi's (1991) second method and test its accuracy of estimation. The method proceeds thus: (i) place a given number of quadrats in the grassland of interest; (ii) an electronic capacitance probe is used to provide corrected meter reading (CMR) values within each quadrat; (iii) two sampling points with a biomass of C 1 g and C 2 g based on CMR values are selected to allow subdivision into three approximately equal frequency classes; (iv) quadrats are placed and CMR values are measured at the two sampling points; (v) the vegetation within the two quadrats is harvested and these samples weighed after drying; (vi) each quadrat (placed in step [i]) is divided into three categories based on the CMR values – less than C 1 g, more than C 1 g and less than C 2 g, and more than C 2 g; and (vii) biomass is estimated from the data obtained by these procedures using the gamma model. Test results suggest that the accuracy of biomass estimation of our method is equivalent to that of the cutting method using several quadrats. Thus, we propose the use of an electronic capacitance probe to rank pasture biomass and the selection of only two quadrat sites for cutting as this offers labor‐saving advantages over current methods.