Biomassamängd

Biomassamängd is the amount of biological material stored as biomass in a defined system, such as a forest, field, freshwater body, or agricultural landscape. It is used to describe standing stock at a given time and can also refer to total biomass accumulated over a defined area or period. The concept is central to ecology, land management, and bioenergy planning because it links biological material to carbon stocks, resource availability, and energy potential.

Biomass is commonly reported as dry biomass, the mass after removing water, but wet biomass (including moisture) is also used, depending on the context. Units include tonnes per hectare (t/ha), kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3) for aquatic environments, or absolute tonnes. Dry mass is often related to energy content, typically about 15–20 MJ per kilogram for many lignocellulosic biomasses, which allows conversion of biomass amount to energy equivalents.

Assessment methods combine field measurements, allometric models, and remote sensing. In forests and trees, allometric equations estimate biomass from easily measured attributes like trunk diameter and height. In large landscapes, LiDAR, satellite imagery, and forest inventories are used to map standing biomass, while destructive sampling may calibrate models. Uncertainties arise from spatial heterogeneity, moisture, species composition, age, and sampling design.

Applications include carbon accounting, climate modeling, sustainable harvest planning, and evaluation of bioenergy potential. Understanding biomassamängd supports decisions on land use, conservation, and energy systems, while enabling comparisons across ecosystems and over time.