D. Delgerjargal studies trees to establish allometric relationships between tree stem diameter and its biomass. Here is the data chain for her work:
visit potential field sites and decide on which one is going to be our research site based on certain criteria such as plantation quality and distance to site
image courtesy D. Delgerjargal under a CC-BY 3.0 Licensego to the field and measure trees for diameter at breast height (dbh) and enter plot size, plot number, tree number, and dbh in MS-Excel spreadsheet
selectively cut some of the trees for “destructive analysis” on-site and weigh the biomass components of trees for wet mass and take sample branches and stem discs for further analysis to the lab
image courtesy Delgerjargal Dugarjav under a CC-BY 3.0 Licensecategorize biomass samples into tissue types (stem, branch and foliage) and weigh them for wet mass and then dry them in the oven to obtain dry-mass
image courtesy Delgerjargal Dugarjav under a CC-BY 3.0 Licensetake foliage sub-samples and measure for leaf area
use the wet-to-dry mass ratio to estimate dry-mass of biomass components of whole tree
do statistical analysis to see if it meets certain assumptions, and if not, then transform the data to see if it meets the assumptions
establish allometric relationships between stem diameter and dry mass of biomass components
compose allometric equations in R
validate and compare equations and produce plots and charts