BOREAS TE-12: Leaf Water Potential in Boreal Forest Species

BOREAS TE-12 water potential data provides direct physiological measurements from three key boreal tree species—aspen, jack pine, and black spruce—during the 1993 and 1994 field campaigns. The data was collected in situ using a pressure chamber across five distinct sites within the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study area. This dataset offers a focused snapshot of plant water status critical for modeling ecosystem hydrology and vegetation stress.

Use Cases

• Modeling plant water stress and transpiration rates based on species-specific leaf water potential measurements.
• Calibrating remote sensing indices of vegetation health with ground-truth physiological data from the BOREAS campaign.
• Comparing water status across boreal forest sites (FEN, YJP, YA, OA, OBS) and between dominant tree species.
• Analyzing seasonal or interannual (1993-1994) variation in plant water relations within a major international field study.

Strengths

• Data originates from the well-documented BOREAS international field campaign, lending credibility.
• Covers three ecologically significant boreal species (aspen, jack pine, black spruce) across five distinct sites.
• Provides direct, instrument-based measurements using a standardized pressure chamber method.

Limitations

• Column names and data structure are unknown, limiting immediate analytical utility.
• Conflicting metadata: one platform lists a last update in 2026, while another suggests the data is from 1994, creating uncertainty about provenance and maintenance.
• Dataset scale (row count, file size) is unspecified across all sources.

Provenance

Source

BOREAS TE-12 team, collected for NASA.

Collection Method

Field measurements made using a pressure chamber on a platform.

Time Range

1993-1994

Freshness

2026-03-13 (from one platform, conflicting with the 1994 date from another)

Geography

BOREAS Southern Study Area (SSA) sites: FEN, YJP, YA, OA, OBS.