<p>Biomass itself isn't a great measure of tree age because the size of a tree is affected by a number of factors. Assuming the same species of tree:</p>
<ol>
<li>Soil nutrients: more nutrients in general means better growth for most species</li>
<li>Availability of water: scare water means less growth</li>
<li>Availability of light: a tree with more light grows more than one that's constrained</li>
</ol>
<p>A tree with good soil, lots of water and light will grow more than one without those things, so the same age of tree could be very different sizes and biomasses. The only way to get an exact age of a tree is to get a core sample or cut it down and count the rings, every ring represents a growing year. A tree that grows very little will have narrowly spaced rings, a tree that grows a lot has wider space rings as it's putting more biomass. Note that wood density is also an important measurement for biomass, the denser the wood the more biomass is compacted in the same amount of space. Slower growing trees tend to be more dense, tree twice the size of another may not be twice the mass.</p>
<p>That's for a single tree, but you're asking about forests. It's impractical to core sample a million trees, but you can core sample a fair number of live ones or take samples of fallen ones. Along with measurements of circumference and height you can build a database and estimate the average age of the rest of the trees in the forest from their heights and circumferences. It's also possible to estimate the biomass of the forest from estimating the number of trees in and using an average biomass.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-08T09:53:42.353Z
2022-08-08T09:53:42.353Z
GdD
<p>I am trying to study about forest biomass and carbon amount of forest.
First of all, I studied some papers, they mentioned that age of forest is related to the biomass. So, How do we measure the age of tree? What are the practical ways used to estimate tree age?</p>

<remote-sensing><forest>
How is tree age estimated?
Badma
# How is tree age estimated?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-06)

I am trying to study about forest biomass and carbon amount of forest.
First of all, I studied some papers, they mentioned that age of forest is related to the biomass. So, How do we measure the age of tree? What are the practical ways used to estimate tree age?

**Tags:** remote-sensing, forest


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-08-08. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Biomass itself isn't a great measure of tree age because the size of a tree is affected by a number of factors. Assuming the same species of tree:

1. Soil nutrients: more nutrients in general means better growth for most species
2. Availability of water: scare water means less growth
3. Availability of light: a tree with more light grows more than one that's constrained

A tree with good soil, lots of water and light will grow more than one without those things, so the same age of tree could be very different sizes and biomasses. The only way to get an exact age of a tree is to get a core sample or cut it down and count the rings, every ring represents a growing year. A tree that grows very little will have narrowly spaced rings, a tree that grows a lot has wider space rings as it's putting more biomass. Note that wood density is also an important measurement for biomass, the denser the wood the more biomass is compacted in the same amount of space. Slower growing trees tend to be more dense, tree twice the size of another may not be twice the mass.

That's for a single tree, but you're asking about forests. It's impractical to core sample a million trees, but you can core sample a fair number of live ones or take samples of fallen ones. Along with measurements of circumference and height you can build a database and estimate the average age of the rest of the trees in the forest from their heights and circumferences. It's also possible to estimate the biomass of the forest from estimating the number of trees in and using an average biomass.


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