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A Global Database of Field-observed Leaf Area Index in Woody Plant Species, 1932-2011

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

This data set provides global leaf area index (LAI) values for woody species. The data are a compilation of field-observed data from 1,216 locations obtained from 554 literature sources published between 1932 and 2011. Only site-specific maximum LAI values were included from the sources; values affected by significant artificial treatments (e.g. continuous fertilization and/or irrigation) and LAI values that were low due to drought or disturbance (e.g. intensive thinning, wildfire, or disease), or because vegetation was immature or old/declining, were excluded (Lio et al., 2014). To maximize the generic applicability of the data, original LAI values from source literature and values standardized using the definition of half of total surface area (HSA) are included. Supporting information, such as geographical coordinates of plot, altitude, stand age, name of dominant species, plant functional types, and climate data are also provided in the data file. There is one data file in comma-separated (.csv) format with this data set and one companion file which provides the data sources.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher ORNL_DAAC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1231
Data Last Modified 2025-09-10
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id c08817a0-6c91-44f7-bbf9-e00ad1b3e0cc
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=LAI_Woody_Plants_1231&ac=true
Old Spatial {"WestBoundingCoordinate":-164.78,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":78.42,"EastBoundingCoordinate":175.62,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-54.2},"CARTESIAN"
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 193bdc62cf11dc71333dcd3e18f54fffd3844541b88fa57b1cf118590d7257f7
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 1932-01-01/1932-01-01

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