The term best describes the mass of the above-ground vegetation in a given forest would be the standing crop.
The standing crop of a forest specifically refers to the mass of all the living plant materials present in the forest at a particular time ranging from the biggest of trees, shrubs, herbs, to the tiniest of grasses.
Standing crop is as opposed to biomass in that the latter refers to the total mass of organic materials from the living and dead plants derivable from the forest.
More on standing crop and biomass can be found here: https://brainly.com/question/14656365
