NPP Boreal Forest: Schefferville Biomass and Climate, 1974
Updated 1mo ago
6filesBIN
Available on 2 platforms
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Description
NPP Boreal Forest: Schefferville, Canada, 1974, R1 contains two text files from NASA. One provides detailed biomass, soil, and nutrient measurements from a 110-year-old black spruce/lichen woodland harvested in a 0.2 hectare plot during the 1974 growing season. The second file contains climate data (precipitation and temperature) from a nearby weather station for the period 1948-1990.
Use Cases
Modeling boreal forest net primary productivity (NPP) using specific biomass measurements (2,636, 833, and 939 g/m2 for trees, shrubs, and lichen).
Analyzing long-term climate trends in a subarctic region using the 1948-1990 precipitation and temperature time series.
Studying soil nutrient content and biomass distribution in mature, fire-impacted boreal ecosystems.
Calibrating or validating terrestrial ecosystem models (TEM) with field-measured biomass and NPP estimates (340 g/m2/yr).
Comparing species composition and density from a principal plot against fifteen other plots to assess site typicality.
Strengths
Contains direct field measurements from a harvested 0.2 hectare plot, providing specific biomass values for tree, shrub, and lichen components.
Includes a long-term climate record (1948-1990) from a station 22 km from the study site, supporting temporal analysis.
Data files have been checked for accuracy and are identical to the original 2001 publication, indicating consistency.
Limitations
Column names and data structure are not provided, making precise interpretation of the tabular files difficult.
Metadata conflicts exist: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-04-09 (likely documentation only), while another lists 1990-10-31 for the data itself.
The dataset's spatial scale is limited to a single study site near Schefferville, Canada.
Provenance
Source
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Collection Method
Field harvest of trees, shrubs, and ground cover in a study plot; soil extraction; and analysis of plant and soil samples. Climate data from a weather station.
Time Range
1948-1990 for climate data; 1974 for biomass and nutrient data.
Freshness
Documentation was updated as of 2026-04-09, but the core data is from 1974 and 1948-1990, originally published in 2001.
Geography
Subarctic Picea mariana/lichen woodland near Schefferville, Canada (54.72 N, -67.70 W).
License is listed as 'other-license-specified' on one platform but not detailed. Data is in .txt format.