Leaf Water Potential Data for Prairie Grasses in FIFE

NASA collected leaf water potential measurements from five prairie grass species during the summers of 1988 and 1989. The dataset was designed to investigate the relationship between plant water status and optical reflectance, with measurements taken at six field stations. Data can be linked to concurrent leaf optical properties measurements using shared plant identifiers.

Use Cases

• Correlating leaf water potential values with optical reflectance data from the Nebraska Multiband Leaf Radiometer (NMLR).
• Estimating soil water potential using pre-dawn leaf water potential measurements.
• Analyzing water status differences across species like Indian grass, switch grass, and bluestems.
• Investigating changes in leaf internal structure or water content detectable in mid-IR wavebands.

Strengths

• Data collection spans two consecutive summer field seasons (1988 and 1989).
• Measurements include multiple grass species and leaf age classes (recently expanded, older green, yellow).
• Designed for direct linkage to a companion optical properties dataset via plant number.

Limitations

• Core metadata such as row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable across all platforms.
• The license is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on some platforms and null on others.
• The most recent update date conflicts between sources (1989 vs. 2026), suggesting possible metadata errors.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field measurements of leaf water potential taken at six stations, often on the same leaf used for optical readings.

Time Range

Summer 1988 to Summer 1989

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:01:51.253421

Geography

Field stations within the FIFE (First ISLSCP Field Experiment) study area.