Author: Arthur Bailly
Date: 2026-06-26

# Estimating stand biomass

#### Arthur Bailly

#### 2026-06-26

# 1 General workflow and required data

For the sake of clarity, and to be consistent with the BIOMASS paper (Réjou-Méchain et al. 2017), this vignette follows the same workflow as presented in the paper:

As can be seen, the estimate of the above ground biomass (AGB) of a tree, and its associated uncertainty, is based on its wood density, diameter, and height.

However, exhaustive values of wood density and height are rarely available in forest inventory data. This is why the package proposes an estimate of these two covariables, based on more usual data.

In this vignette, we will use some of the data obtained in 2012 from a forest inventory conducted in 2012 in the Nouragues forest (French Guiana). For educational purpose, some virtual trees have been added to the data.

    data("NouraguesTrees")
    knitr::kable(head(NouraguesTrees))

| Site | Plot | Xfield | Yfield | Family | Genus | Species | D
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
14 | Petit_Plateau | 201 | 0.0 | 31.5 | Burseraceae | Protium | surinamense | 11.0
44 | Petit_Plateau | 201 | 0.1 | 75.2 | Anacardiaceae | Tapirira | guianensis | 74.4
13 | Petit_Plateau | 201 | 0.2 | 27.6 | Lecythidaceae | Indet.Lecythidaceae | Indet. | 25.4
2810 | Petit_Plateau | 201 | -4.0 | 67.5 | Euphorbiaceae | Conceveiba | guyanensis | 10.0
24 | Petit_Plateau | 201 | 0.3 | 39.9 | Burseraceae | Protium | altissimum | 18.9
12100 | Petit_Plateau | 201 | -3.5 | 41.5 | Euphorbiaceae | Mabea | speciosa | 10.0

These data do not contain any information on wood density or height of trees. Only diameter is known, as no estimate can be made without this information.

# 2 Wood density

Wood density is estimated from tree taxonomy, using the global wood density database as a reference. So the first step might be to correct tree taxonomy.

## 2.1 Checking and retrieving tree taxonomy

This is done with the `correctTaxo()` function, but before calling it, let’s speak about cache !

When the function is called for the first time with the argument `useCache = TRUE`, a temporary file containing the request to TNRS will be automatically created in an existing folder. Once this has been done, during the current session the use of `useCache = TRUE` will access the saved temporary file in order to avoid time-consuming replication of server requests. But by quitting the current R session, this temporary file will be removed. So before calling `correctTaxo()`, we advise you to define a folder which will host the cache file permanently, enabling to work offline.

    # By default
    createCache()
    # Or if you want to set your own cache folder
    createCache("the_path_to_your_cache_folder")
    # Or
    options("BIOMASS.cache" = "the_path_to_your_cache_folder")

That said, let’s continue with the call to `correctTaxo()` function:

    Taxo <- correctTaxo(
      genus = NouraguesTrees$Genus, # genus also accepts the whole species name (genus + species) or (genus + species + author)
      species = NouraguesTrees$Species,
      useCache = TRUE, verbose = FALSE)
    saveRDS(Taxo, file = "saved_data/Taxo_vignette.rds")

The corrected genus and species of the trees can now be added to the data:

    NouraguesTrees$GenusCorrected <- Taxo$genusCorrected
    NouraguesTrees$SpeciesCorrected <- Taxo$speciesCorrected

Here, as an example, the species name of the fourth tree has been corrected from “guyanensis” to “guianensis” (the fourth row of correctTaxo() output has a TRUE value for the column nameModified) :

    NouraguesTrees$Species[4]
    #> [1] "guyanensis"
    Taxo[4,]
    #>   genusCorrected speciesCorrected nameModified
    #> 4     Conceveiba       guianensis         TRUE

If you want (but this is optional for the rest), you can retrieve APG III families and orders from genus names.

    APG <- getTaxonomy(NouraguesTrees$GenusCorrected, findOrder = TRUE)
    NouraguesTrees$familyAPG <- APG$family
    NouraguesTrees$orderAPG <- APG$order

## 2.2 Getting wood density

Wood densities are retrieved using `getWoodDensity()` function. By default, this function assigns to each taxon a species- or genus-level average if at least one wood density value of the same species or genus is available in the reference database. For unidentified trees or if the genus is missing in the reference database, the stand-level mean wood density is assigned to the tree.

    wood_densities <- getWoodDensity(
      genus = NouraguesTrees$GenusCorrected,
      species = NouraguesTrees$SpeciesCorrected,
      stand = NouraguesTrees$Plot # for unidentified or non-documented trees in the reference database
    )
    #> The reference dataset contains 16467 wood density values
    #> Your taxonomic table contains 408 taxa

    NouraguesTrees$WD <- wood_densities$meanWD

For information, here are the number of wood density values estimated at the species, genus and plot level:

    # At species level
    sum(wood_densities$levelWD == "species")
    #> [1] 1291
    # At genus level
    sum(wood_densities$levelWD == "genus")
    #> [1] 586
    # At plot level
    sum(!wood_densities$levelWD %in% c("genus", "species"))
    #> [1] 173

The `family` argument also assigns to the trees a family-level wood density average, but bear in mind that the taxon-average approach gives relatively poor estimates above the genus level (Flores & Coomes 2011).

Additional wood density values can be added using the `addWoodDensityData` argument (here invented for the example):

    LocalWoodDensity <- data.frame(
      genus = c("Paloue", "Handroanthus"),
      species = c("princeps", "serratifolius"),
      wd = c(0.65, 0.72) )

    add_wood_densities <- getWoodDensity(
      genus = NouraguesTrees$GenusCorrected,
      species = NouraguesTrees$SpeciesCorrected,
      family = NouraguesTrees$familyAPG,
      stand = NouraguesTrees$Plot,
      addWoodDensityData = LocalWoodDensity
    )

# 3 Height

As tree height measurements are rare, or rarely exhaustive, BIOMASS proposes three methods to estimate tree height:

If a subset of well-measured trees is available in the studied region:

- Construct a local Height–Diameter (H-D) allometry

If not:

- Use the continent- or region-speciﬁc H–D models proposed by Feldpausch et al. (2012)
- Use a generic H–D model based on a single bioclimatic predictor E (eqn 6a in Chave et al. 2014)

## 3.1 Building a local H-D model

As no height measurements is available in the `NouraguesTrees` dataset, we will use the `NouraguesHD` dataset which contains the height and diameter measurements of two 1-ha plots from the Nouragues forest.

    data("NouraguesHD")

The `modelHD()` function is used to either compare four implemented models to ﬁt H–D relationships in the tropics, or to compute the desired H-D model.

Here we first compare the four H-D models using linear regression (for log^1 and log^2 models) or nonlinear least squares estimates (for Michaelis-Menten and Weibull models) :

    HD_res <- modelHD(
      D = NouraguesHD$D, H = NouraguesHD$H,
      useWeight = TRUE, drawGraph = T)

    kable(HD_res)

method | RSE | RSElog | Average_bias
--- | --- | --- | ---
log1 | 4.700088 | 0.2472750 | 0.0724598
log2 | 4.329727 | 0.2240379 | 0.0182504
weibull | 4.307951 | NA | -0.0186951
michaelis | 4.294488 | NA | -0.0064068

As the log2 model has the lowest RSE, we will build this model using the `method` argument and add its predictions to the dataset with the `retrieveH()` function:

    HDmodel <- modelHD(
      D = NouraguesHD$D, H = NouraguesHD$H,
      method = "log2", useWeight = TRUE)

    H_model <- retrieveH(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D,
      model = HDmodel)

    NouraguesTrees$H_model <-  H_model$H

By setting `bayesian = TRUE` in `modelHD()` arguments, we could have built bayesian models using the brms package (see section Building bayesian Height-Diameter models).

Note that if some of the trees’ heights had been measured in the `NouraguesTrees` dataset, we could have provided these heights to `modelHD()`. In this case, we could also have created a model for each stand/sub-region present in `NouraguesTrees` using the `plot` argument. But keep in mind that even for well-measured trees, `retrieveH()` gives you the predicted height (see this section).

## 3.2 Using the continent- or region-speciﬁc H–D model (Feldpausch)

No need to compute any model here, as the predictions of the model proposed by Feldspausch et al. are directly retrieved by the `retrieveH()` function. Simply indicate the region concerned:

    H_feldspausch <- retrieveH(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D,
      region = "GuianaShield")

    NouraguesTrees$H_feldspausch <- H_feldspausch$H

Available regions are listed in the documentation of the function.

## 3.3 Using the generic H–D model based on a bioclimatic predictor (Chave)

In the same way as for the previous model, the predictions of the model proposed by Chave et al. are directly retrieved by the `retrieveH()` function. Coordinates of the plot (or trees) in a longitude/latitude format must be provided.

    data("NouraguesCoords") #contains corner coordinates
    coords <- apply(NouraguesCoords[c("Long","Lat")] , 2, mean) # compute the mean of the corner coordinates

    H_chave  <- retrieveH(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D,
      coord = coords)

    NouraguesTrees$H_chave <- H_chave$H

# 4 Estimate AGB

Once tree diameter, wood density and height have been retrieved, the generalised allometric model (eqn 4 of Chave et al. (2014)) can be used with the `computeAGB()` function, where AGB values are reported in Mg instead of in kg:

    NouraguesTrees$AGB <- computeAGB(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D,
      WD = NouraguesTrees$WD,
      H = NouraguesTrees$H_model #here with the local H-D predictions
      )

For AGB estimates using tree heights obtained by the “Chave method” (H_chave), it is more accurate to provide the area coordinates directly instead of the tree height estimates:

    NouraguesTrees$AGB_Chave <- computeAGB(
        D = NouraguesTrees$D,
        WD = NouraguesTrees$WD,
        coord = coords)

# 5 Propagate AGB errors

The `AGBmonteCarlo()` function allows the user to propagate diﬀerent sources of error up to the ﬁnal AGB estimate.

The error propagation due to the uncertainty of the model parameters of the AGB allometric equation (Chave et al. 2014) is automatically performed by the function. However, the propagation of the error due to the uncertainty of the model variables (D, WD and H) can be parameterized by the user.

## 5.1 Diameter measurement error

Using the `Dpropag` argument of the `AGBmonteCarlo()` function, the user can set diameter measurement errors by:

- providing a standard deviation value corresponding to the measurement uncertainty (e.g `Dpropag = 1`)
- providing a vector of standard deviation values associated with each tree measurement uncertainty
- using the implemented example of Chave et al. 2004 with `Dpropag = "chave2004"`, where small errors are applied on 95% of the trees and large errors to the remaining 5%

    D_error_prop <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D, WD = NouraguesTrees$WD, H = NouraguesTrees$H_model,
      Dpropag = "chave2004",
      errWD = rep(0,nrow(NouraguesTrees)), errH = 0 # no error propagation on WD and H here
    )

## 5.2 Wood density error

The `getWoodDensity()` function returns prior standard deviation values associated with each tree wood density using the mean standard deviation of the global wood density database at the species, genus and family levels.

This output can be provided through the `errWD` argument:

    WD_error_prop <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D, WD = NouraguesTrees$WD, H = NouraguesTrees$H_model,
      errWD = wood_densities$sdWD,
      Dpropag = 0 , errH = 0 # no error propagation on D and H here
    )

## 5.3 Height error

The user can provide either a SD value or a vector of SD values associated with tree height measurement errors, using the `errH` argument.

- If tree heights have been estimated via a local HD-model, instead of the providing `errH` and `H` arguments, the user has to provide the output of the `modelHD()` function using the `modelHD` argument:

    H_model_error_prop <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D, WD = NouraguesTrees$WD, # we do not provide H
      HDmodel = HDmodel, # but we provide HDmodel
      Dpropag = 0 , errWD = rep(0,nrow(NouraguesTrees)) # no error propagation on D and WD here
    )

Note that when HDmodel is not a bayesian model, uncertainties of the are not propagated during the error propagation of the AGBmonteCarlo() function.

- If tree heights have been estimated via the “Feldspausch” method, the user has to provide the output of the `retrieveH()` function for the `errH` argument:

    H_feld_error_prop <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D, WD = NouraguesTrees$WD,
      H = NouraguesTrees$H_feldspausch, errH = H_feldspausch$RSE, # we provide H and errH
      Dpropag = 0 , errWD = rep(0,nrow(NouraguesTrees)) # no error propagation on D and WD here
    )

- If tree heights have been estimated via the “Chave” method, the user has to provide the coordinates of the area (or of the trees) using the `coord` argument:

    H_chave_error_prop <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D, WD = NouraguesTrees$WD, # we do not provide H
      coord = coords, # but we provide the vector of median coordinates of the plots
      Dpropag = 0 , errWD = rep(0,nrow(NouraguesTrees)) # no error propagation on D and WD here
    )

## 5.4 All together and AGB visualisation of plots

Let’s propagate all sources of errors using the HD-model:

    error_prop <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D, WD = NouraguesTrees$WD, # we do not provide H
      HDmodel = HDmodel, # but we provide HDmodel
      Dpropag = "chave2004",
      errWD = wood_densities$sdWD)

    error_prop[(1:4)]
    #> $meanAGB
    #> [1] 1702.505
    #>
    #> $medAGB
    #> [1] 1701.498
    #>
    #> $sdAGB
    #> [1] 47.20485
    #>
    #> $credibilityAGB
    #>     2.5%    97.5%
    #> 1611.924 1804.122

The first four elements of the output contain the mean, median, standard deviation and credibility intervals of the total AGB of the dataset but nothing about the AGB at the plot level. To do this, you can use the `summaryByPlot()` function:

    AGB_by_plot <- summaryByPlot(AGB_val = error_prop$AGB_simu, plot = NouraguesTrees$Plot, drawPlot = TRUE)

Finally, the last element (`$AGB_simu`) of the `AGBmonteCarlo()` output is a matrix containing the simulated tree AGB values (in rows) for each iteration of the Monte Carlo procedure (in columns).

# 6 Some tricks

## 6.1 Mixing measured and estimated height values

If you want to use a mix of directly-measured height and of estimated ones, you can proceed as follows:

1. Build a vector of H and RSE where we assume an error of 0.5 m on directly measured trees

    # NouraguesHD contains 163 trees that were not measured
    NouraguesHD$Hmix <- NouraguesHD$H
    NouraguesHD$RSEmix <- 0.5
    filt <- is.na(NouraguesHD$Hmix)
    NouraguesHD$Hmix[filt] <- retrieveH(NouraguesHD$D, model = HDmodel)$H[filt]
    NouraguesHD$RSEmix[filt] <- HDmodel$RSE

2. Apply the AGBmonteCarlo by setting the height values and their errors (which depend on whether the trees were directly measured or estimated)

    wd <- getWoodDensity(NouraguesHD$genus, NouraguesHD$species)
    resultMC <- AGBmonteCarlo(
      D = NouraguesHD$D, WD = wd$meanWD, errWD = wd$sdWD,
      H = NouraguesHD$Hmix, errH = NouraguesHD$RSEmix,
      Dpropag = "chave2004"
    )
    summaryByPlot(AGB_val = resultMC$AGB_simu, plot = NouraguesHD$plotId, drawPlot = TRUE)

## 6.2 Building bayesian Height-Diameter models

Since version 2.2.6, BIOMASS enables to build bayesian H-D models using the brms package.

As compiling the Stan programme may take some time the first time around, we recommend setting the ‘useCache’ argument to TRUE in the `modelHD()` function. This will save the model as a .rds file in the defined cache path, meaning that next time, the model will simply be loaded and updated, bypassing the compilation stage.

    # First, define the user cache path
    createCache("the_path_to_your_cache_folder")
    # Or
    options("BIOMASS.cache" = "the_path_to_your_cache_folder")

    brm_model <- modelHD(
      D = NouraguesHD$D, H = NouraguesHD$H,
      method = "log2",
      bayesian = TRUE, useCache = TRUE)

    H_brm_model <- retrieveH(
      D = NouraguesTrees$D,
      model = brm_model)
    NouraguesTrees$H_model <-  H_brm_model$H

If the Michaelis-Menten or Weibull methods are used, you must pay close attention to the returned models as the algorithm is likely to identify numerous local minima for the estimated parameters. Here is an example of the Weibull method being used with the default arguments:

    brm_model <- modelHD(
      D = NouraguesHD$D, H = NouraguesHD$H,
      method = "weibull",
      bayesian = TRUE, useCache = TRUE)

    plot(brm_model$model)

As one can see, the two first parameters a and b (resp. called `b_a_Intercept` and `b_b_Intercept`) of the Weibull equation: \[H=a \cdot (1-exp(-(D/b)^c))\] are strongly correlated. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to define priors that do not allow for unrealistic values. To do this, we need to examine the meanings of the Weibull parameters:

- `a` can be considered as the hypothetical maximum height, so defining a uniform prior between 0 and 80m seems realistic.
- `b` is the scaling parameter, so defining a uniform prior between 0 and a high value of D (e.g. the 90th percentile) makes sense.
- `c` is the shape parameter which must be between 0 and 1

Besides, since model parameters and chain iterations are strongly correlated, an increase of `thin`, `iter` and `warmup` is required (see the help of brms::brm() and this page for more details).

The arguments of `brms::brm()` (cited above) can be provided to `modelHD()`:

    weibull_priors <- c(
      set_prior(prior = "uniform(0,80)", lb = 0, ub = 80, class = "b",nlpar = "a"),
      set_prior(prior = "uniform(0,100)", lb = 0, ub = 100, class = "b",nlpar = "b"),
      set_prior(prior = "uniform(0.01,0.99)", lb = 0.01, ub = 0.99, class = "b",nlpar = "c")
    )

    brm_model <- modelHD(D = NouraguesHD$D, H = NouraguesHD$H,
                         method = "weibull", bayesian = TRUE, useCache = TRUE,
                         prior = weibull_priors,
                         thin = 10, iter = 6000, warmup = 1000,
                         cores = 3 # number of cores = 3 since 3 chains are running
    )

    plot(brm_model$model)

Posterior distributions look better but the right-skewed distributions are not yet satisfactory. So we recommend using the log2 method when the RSE given by lm and nls models (when bayesian = FALSE) are close.

## 6.3 Add your tricks

If you would like to share a code that might be useful to users (code authorship will be respected), you can create a new issue on the BIOMASS github page, or contact Dominique (dominique.lamonica@ird.fr).