Within the framework of climate-smart forestry, accurate information on phytomass and carbon deposition capacity of forests is necessary. To date, many empirical models have been published and many taxation standards have been compiled to assess the trees’ and stands’ phytomass based on morphometric indicators measured in sample plots. However, using them in order to assess the carbon-depositing capacity of forests across large areas by means of traditional land-based forest inventory is quite a laborious undertaking. The laser (lidar) technology may be used as an alternative, but it does not allow determining the main mass-forming parameters — the tree trunk’s diameters or the average trunk diameter within the stand. To combine traditional empirical models and tables of phytomass with remote sensing data, intermediate models are needed to estimate the diameter of the tree trunk or the average trunk diameter within the stand, depending on the morphometry of the canopy, recorded either by terrestrial methods or remotely. The purpose of this study was to design the models of the tree trunk’s diameter’s dependence and the average trunk diameter within the stand on the main morphometric indicators of the canopy, obtained by ground measurements, but also available for lidar scanning. The models are constructed at the level of genera as aggregates of vicarious species. The materials of two previously compiled databases on phytomass and morphometric structure of 5320 trees and 5817 stands of Eurasia were used as the initial data for the study. Two-factor allometric dependences were constructed for 13 genera: (a) the stem diameter at breast height relation to the height of the tree and the diameter of the crown and (b) the average trunk diameter of the stand relation to the average tree height and stand’s density, explaining in most cases from 90 to 97% of the dependent variable’s variability. The proposed models based on traditional ground-based taxation data can be directly applied in lidar technologies or used to validate models based on lidar sensing data. This is especially important due to the lack of ground-based measurements of tree and stand morphometry for most existing species and habitats. The use of the proposed models based on the results of remote registration of crown and canopy morphology makes it possible to assess the phytomass and carbon pool of trees and stands in some territories in real time by combining them with available standards and specifications for determining the phytomass of trees and stands.
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V. А. Usoltsev (2025) studied this question.