Forcing additivity of biomass tables: use of the generalized least squares method

Abstract

The generalized least squares procedure is applied to sample tree data for which additive biomass tables are required. This procedure is proposed as an alternative to the ordinary weighted least squares in order to account for the fact that several biomass components are measured on the same sample trees. The biomass tables generated by the generalized and the ordinary least squares are very similar, the confidence intervals are sometimes wider, sometimes narrower, but the prediction intervals are always narrower for the generalized least squares method.