Eastern US Forest Biomass Production and Mortality, 1962-1996

NASA's dataset provides county-level estimates of above-ground woody biomass production and mortality for eastern US temperate forests. It covers 1,956 counties across 28 states, with data derived from USDA Forest Service FIA inventory plots from the 1960s to 1990s. The core files contain annual mean increments for biomass growth, removals, mortality, and forest area.

Use Cases

• Modeling regional carbon sequestration by analyzing county-level annual above-ground woody biomass production (APWB).
• Assessing forest disturbance impacts, such as hurricane damage, by examining mortality of woody biomass (MWB) values, including the high-mortality area in South Carolina.
• Comparing hardwood and softwood forest productivity using the provided average and range values for APWB and MWB.
• Mapping spatial patterns of forest productivity across the southeastern US using county-level data on biomass growth per hectare.
• Estimating forest resource availability by combining data on forest area per county with biomass production and removal rates.

Strengths

• Covers a large spatial extent with data for 1,956 counties across 28 eastern US states.
• Based on long-term, standardized USDA Forest Service FIA inventory data from a network of permanent plots.
• Data files have been checked for accuracy and remain consistent with the original 2003 publication.

Limitations

• Data is not recent, representing forest conditions from the 1960s to 1990s.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: Data.gov lists 2026-03-12 (likely a metadata error), while NASA Earthdata lists 1996-12, creating uncertainty about actual updates.
• Specific column names and the exact row count for the tab-delimited files are not provided in the available metadata.

Provenance

Source

US Department of Agriculture Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA), published by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Collection Method

Derived from an extensive network of permanent forest inventory plots.

Time Range

1960s to 1990s

Freshness

1996-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Temperate forests in 1,956 counties of the 28 eastern United States.