Biomass

Abstract

Biomass, the contraction for biological mass, is the amount of living material provided by a given area or volume of the earth's surface, whether terrestrial or aquatic. Biomass is important for commercial uses (e.g., fuel and fiber) and for national development planning, as well as for scientific studies of ecosystem productivity, energy and nutrient flows, and for assessing the contribution of changes in forest lands (especially tropical) to the global carbon cycle.

Citation

Parresol, Bernard R. 2001. Biomass. In: El-Shaarawi, Abdel H.; Piegorsch, Walter W. Encyclopedia of Environmetrics. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: 196-198