QUEST Authors Ruth Yanai, Carrie Rose Levine, Mark Green,
and John Campbell have published an article in this month’s Journal of Forestry titled “Quantifying
uncertainty in forest nutrient budgets”
ABSTRACT: Nutrient budgets for forested
ecosystems have rarely included error analysis, in spite of the importance of
uncertainty to interpretation and extrapolation of the results. Uncertainty
derives from natural spatial and temporal variation and also from knowledge
uncertainty in measurement and models. For example, when estimating forest
biomass, researchers commonly report sampling uncertainty but rarely propagate
the uncertainty in the allometric equations used to estimate tree biomass, much
less the uncertainty in the selection of which allometric equations to use.
Change over time may have less uncertainty than a single measurement, if the
measures are consistently biased, as by the use of inaccurate allometric
equations or soil sampling techniques. Quantifying uncertainty is not as
difficult as is sometimes believed. Here, we describe recent progress in
quantifying uncertainty in biomass, soils, and hydrologic inputs and outputs,
using examples from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA.
ABSTRACT: Nutrient budgets for forested
ecosystems have rarely included error analysis, in spite of the importance of
uncertainty to interpretation and extrapolation of the results. Uncertainty
derives from natural spatial and temporal variation and also from knowledge
uncertainty in measurement and models. For example, when estimating forest
biomass, researchers commonly report sampling uncertainty but rarely propagate
the uncertainty in the allometric equations used to estimate tree biomass, much
less the uncertainty in the selection of which allometric equations to use.
Change over time may have less uncertainty than a single measurement, if the
measures are consistently biased, as by the use of inaccurate allometric
equations or soil sampling techniques. Quantifying uncertainty is not as
difficult as is sometimes believed. Here, we describe recent progress in
quantifying uncertainty in biomass, soils, and hydrologic inputs and outputs,
using examples from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA.
Click here to download the pdf.
