Global Canopy Nitrogen Demand Estimates from Satellite LAI, 1982–2016

Ning Dong from Imperial College London produced a dataset analyzing the relationship between rising CO2, warming, and global canopy nitrogen demand. It uses satellite-derived Leaf Area Index data from 1982 to 2016 and applies the coordination hypothesis to predict photosynthetic capacity. The findings suggest canopy nitrogen demand has declined since 1997 despite increasing leaf area.

Use Cases

• Modeling terrestrial carbon uptake constraints based on predicted changes in photosynthetic nitrogen.
• Analyzing long-term trends in leaf-level photosynthetic capacity using satellite LAI data.
• Validating independent reconstructions of vegetation parameters, such as leaf chlorophyll content, with model predictions.

Strengths

• Analysis covers a 34-year time range from 1982 to 2016.
• Integrates satellite-based Leaf Area Index data with an empirical model.
• Predicted trends (e.g., 0.28%/year decline in leaf photosynthetic N) are compared with observed declines (0.2–0.25%/year).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Imperial College London

Collection Method

Predicted using the coordination hypothesis and satellite LAI data, with validation against remotely-sensed leaf chlorophyll content.

Time Range

1982–2016

Geography

Global