Aboveground biomass
Definition
Living vegetation above the soil, including stem, stump, branches, bark, seeds, and foliage.
Source
Glossary. M.S. Ashton et al. (eds.), Managing Forest Carbon in a Changing Climate, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2232-3, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Alternative definition
The amount of living substance in a defined sample. Only above-ground biomass is measurable with some accuracy at the broad scale. While below-ground biomass stores a large part of total carbon stocks, it is rarely measured because it can only be assessed through in situ measurements that tend to be labour- and time-intensive.
Alternative source
Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), FAO, 2008 (http://www.fao.org/gtos/tems/variable_show.jsp?VARIABLE_ID=1).
