Quantifying the relationship between tree diameter and height is a key component of efforts to estimate biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forests. Although substantial site-to-site variation in height-diameter allometries has been documented, the time consuming nature of measuring all tree heights in an inventory plot means that most studies do not include height, or else use generic pan-tropical or regional allometric equations to estimate height.Using a pan-tropical dataset of 73 plots where at least 150 trees had in-field ground-based height measurements, we examined how the number of trees sampled affects the performance of locally derived height-diameter allometries, and evaluated the performance of different methods for sampling trees for height measurement.Using cross-validation, we found that allometries constructed with just 20 locally measured values could often predict tree height with lower error than regional or climate-based allometries (mean reduction in prediction error = 0.46 m). The predictive performance of locally derived allometries improved with sample size, but with diminishing returns in performance gains when more than 40 trees were sampled. Estimates of stand-level biomass produced using local allometries to estimate tree height show no over- or under-estimation bias when compared with biomass estimates using field measured heights. We evaluated five strategies to sample trees for height measurement, and found that sampling strategies that included measuring the heights of the ten largest diameter trees in a plot outperformed (in terms of resulting in local height-diameter models with low height prediction error) entirely random or diameter size-class stratified approaches.Our results indicate that even limited sampling of heights can be used to refine height-diameter allometries. We recommend aiming for a conservative threshold of sampling 50 trees per location for height measurement, and including the ten trees with the largest diameter in this sample.

Biodiversity and Landscape Unit Gembloux Agro Bio Tech Université de Liège Gembloux Belgium

Bolivia Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado Norte Amazónico Riberalta Bolivia

Bureau Waardenburg bv Culemborg The Netherlands

Carboforexpert Geneva Switzerland

Center for International Forestry Research Bogor Indonesia

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Penicuik UK

Deltares Delft The Netherlands

Department of Biological Sciences Florida International University Miami FL USA

Department of Botany Faculty of Science Palacký University in Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Environmental Systems Science Institute of Integrative Biology ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland

Department of Forest Botany Dendrology and Geobiocoenology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology Mendel University in Brno Brno Czech Republic

Department of Geography University College London London UK

Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Ascot UK

Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Harvard University Cambridge MA USA

Environment Department University of York Heslington York UK

Environmental and Life Sciences Programme Faculty of Science Universiti Brunei Darussalam Brunei Muara Brunei Darussalam

Environmental Change Institute School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford Oxford UK

Faculdade de Filosofia Cîencias e Letras de Ribeirão Preto Universidade de São Paulo Ribeirão Preto Brazil

Faculty of Forestry University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada

Faculty of Science Université de Kisangani Kisangani Democratic Republic of Congo

Geography College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK

Institute for Environmental Biology Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands

Instituto de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo Forestal Universidad de Los Andes Avenida Principal Chorros de Milla Campus Universitario Forestal Edificio Principal Mérida Venezuela

Jardín Botánico de Missouri Oxapampa Pasco Perú

Laboratory for Wood Biology and Xylarium Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren Belgium

Landscape Ecology and Plant Production Systems Unit Université Libre de Bruxelles Bruxelles Belgium

Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory Department of Biology Higher Teachers' Training College University of Yaounde 1 Yaounde Cameroon

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Edinburgh UK

School of Biological Sciences University of Aberdeen Aberdeen UK

School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK

School of Marine and Environmental Sciences James Cook University Cairns Qld Australia

School of Science and the Environment Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester UK

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Balboa Ancon Panama

The Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany Brno Czech Republic

The Landscapes and Livelihoods Partnership Edinburgh UK

Tropenbos International Wageningen The Netherlands

Universidad Autónoma del Beni Riberalta Bolivia

Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco Cusco Perú

Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso Nova Xavantina Brazil

Universidade Estadual de Campinas Campinas Brazil

Université Paul Sabatier CNRS UMR 5174 Evolution et Diversité Biologique Toulouse France

Wageningen Envrionmental Research Wageningen University and Research Wageningen The Netherlands

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies New Haven CT USA

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The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass

Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation

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