Allometric models of biomass and morphology of pinus sibirica Du Tour trees in the Urals and the problem of multicollinearity of factors

The use of correct allometric models is driven by the growing need for information on forest biomass to implement climate change policies and assess the carbon deposition capacity of forests. Since allometric models of biomass with a different number of predictive variables are proposed in the literature, and without taking into account the multicollinearity of the latter, an analysis of three- and two-factor models for the presence of multicollinearity was performed for the first time. For this purpose, the authors obtained actual data on the structure of aboveground biomass and morphology of Siberian cedar (Pinus sibirica Du Tour) for the forests of the Urals in the amount of 77 model trees. It has been established that the currently available database on the biomass of Siberian cedar trees does not make it possible to build correct multifactorial models under the condition of multicollinearity. A system of simple (onefactor) allometric models of the production and morphological parameters of Siberian cedar, adequate at a probability level of p < 0.05 and higher, is proposed. Models of production indicators can be used to assess the biological productivity of cedar forests per unit area in age dynamics and in modeling their carbon deposition capacity. Models of morphological indicators can be used in the analysis of the morphological structure of the canopy of cedar forests, including using deep learning methods. When using the available literature data, the specificity of the ratio of root biomass to aboveground biomass (R:S ratio) in age dynamics has been revealed for young cedar plantations. This ratio decreases from 0.43 to 0.17 in the age range from 4 to 21 years. 

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