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    • Global Forest Ecosystem Structure and Function Data For Carbon Balance Research

    Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

    A comprehensive global database has been assembled to quantify CO2 fluxes and pathways across different levels of integration (from photosynthesis up to net ecosystem production) in forest ecosystems. The database fills an important gap for model calibration, model validation, and hypothesis testing at global and regional scales. The database archive includes: a Microsoft Office Access Database; data files for all tables in the database; query outputs from the database; and SQL script file for re-creating the database from the tables. The database is structured by site (i.e., a forest or stand of known geographical location, biome, species composition, and management regime). It contains carbon budget variables (fluxes and stocks), ecosystem traits (standing biomass, leaf area index, age), and ancillary information (management regime, climate, soil characteristics) for 529 sites from eight forest biomes. Data entries originated from peer-reviewed literature and personal communications with researchers involved in Fluxnet. Flux estimates were included in the database when they were based on direct measurements (e.g., tower-based eddy covariance system measurements), derived from single or multiple direct measurements, or modeled. Stand description was based on observed values, and climatic description was based on the CRU data set and ORCHIDEE model output. Uncertainty for each carbon balance component in the database was estimated in a uniformed way by expert judgment. Robustness of CO2 balances was tested, and closure terms were introduced as a numerical way to approach data quality and flux uncertainty at the biome level.

    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

    Other Data Resources

    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/949
    Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
    Category Earth Science
    Category Tag 16E15F51 D96E 4051 9124 75665Abdc6Ff "Ecosystem Vulnerability","Ecosystem Services and Processes"
    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 962eacaf-08f1-42af-8f32-9fb08a29a8b9
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=forest_carbon_flux_949&ac=true
    Old Spatial {"WestBoundingCoordinate":-159.5,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":67.36,"EastBoundingCoordinate":172.75,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-42.87},"CARTESIAN"
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash f25f30e8b69e1fad9bbf9b1c4f23756e9adcd5c565fc868bea0f3b11d030acf5
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial

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