ESTIMATORS OF FRUIT ABUNDANCE OF TROPICAL TREES

Many types of biological studies require the estimation of food abundance in tropical forests, and a variety of methods have been used to estimate this parameter. Here we compare the accuracy and precision of three methods for estimating the fruit abundance (biomass and number) of tropical tree species: tree diameter, crown volume, and visual estimation. Diameter at breast height (DBH) was the most consistently accurate method and exhibited low levels of interobserver variability. Generally, crown volume was neither precise nor accurate. The visual estimation method was accurate for trees with very large fruit, but exhibited high interobserver variability.