Structural-Properties and Dimensional Relations of Some Mediterranean Shrub Fuels

Abstract

Structural properties of fuelbeds and particles of 60 plants of four shrub species (Ulex parviflorus,Lygos monosperma, Erica arborea, and Erica scoparia) common in the undergrowth of maritime pine forests were inventoried, namely total biomass, biomass distribution by diameter class, dead-to-live biomass ratios, bulk density, and surface-to-volume ratios. Porosity and packing ratios were calculated from the inventoried data. Results are compared with those reported for other shrub fuels of mediterranean and other plant communities. We developed dimensional relations to simplify prediction of total plant biomass, as well as biomass in the 1-hour, 10-hour, and 100-hour timelag size classes. Dimension analysis results are considered quite satisfactory for L. monosperma and Erica sp., while there seems to be some room for improvement regarding our ability to predict biomass of U. parviflorus, based on simple measurements of plant dimensions.