Pampa de Leman Grassland Productivity and Climate, 1980-1982

Northern Patagonia's Pampa de Leman (-45.43 S, -69.83 W) hosts this dataset of monthly productivity and climate measurements from August 1980 to March 1982. Dynamics of above-ground biomass, dead matter, and litter were monitored in a 1.5-hectare sheep exclosure, dominated by the dwarf shrub Nassauvia glomerulosa and grasses Poa dusenii and Hordeum comosum. The data supports an estimated annual above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) of 78 g/m2/yr.

Use Cases

• Modeling carbon sequestration in arid dwarf-shrub steppes based on biomass and litter dynamics.
• Calibrating remote sensing estimates of Net Primary Productivity (NPP) with ground-truth data from a protected exclosure.
• Studying the impact of grazing exclusion on plant community productivity in Patagonian grasslands.
• Analyzing correlations between local climate variables and monthly plant productivity metrics.

Strengths

• Provides a precise ANPP estimate of 78 g/m2/yr for a specific arid steppe community.
• Includes co-located climate data recorded onsite for the duration of the productivity study.
• Offers detailed temporal resolution with monthly or bi-monthly measurements over a 20-month period.
• Describes a controlled environment with data from a 1.5-hectare area protected from sheep grazing.

Limitations

• Column names and data structure are unknown, limiting immediate analytical utility.
• Metadata conflicts exist: one platform lists a last updated date in 2026, while another indicates the data collection ended in 1982.
• The dataset size, row count, and specific file formats beyond .txt are not provided.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field measurements from a monitored exclosure and onsite weather station.

Time Range

1980-08 to 1982-03

Freshness

1982-03-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Pampa de Leman, Argentina (-45.43 S, -69.83 W, Elevation 400 m)