White Spruce Photosynthetic and Leaf Traits from Alaska and New York, 2017

Gas exchange, leaf trait, pigment, and spectral measurements were collected on white spruce trees at the northern and southern edges of the species' distribution during the 2017 growing season. NASA's ABoVE campaign gathered this data using a portable photosynthesis system, spectroradiometer, and digital camera to study vertical canopy gradients in photosynthetic physiology. The dataset is provided in CSV format.

Use Cases

• Modeling photosynthetic light response curves based on gas exchange measurements.
• Analyzing leaf trait gradients (carbon, nitrogen, specific leaf area) across canopy positions.
• Studying pigment content (Chlorophyll a, b, Carotenoids) in relation to geographic range extremes.
• Investigating the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) as an indicator of photosynthetic physiology.

Strengths

• Data collected at both high and low canopy positions on each tree, providing vertical gradient information.
• Measurements span the species' geographic range extremes (Alaska and New York).
• Multiple data types collected concurrently: gas exchange, leaf traits, pigments, and spectral indices.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a single growing season (2017-06-19 to 2017-07-20), limiting temporal analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements obtained using a portable photosynthesis system (LI-6800), spectroradiometer, and digital camera for hemispherical photographs.

Time Range

2017-06-19 to 2017-07-20

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:51:41.914381; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Alaska (northern edge) and Black Rock Forest, New York (southern edge) of white spruce distribution.