Walker Branch Watershed Tree Diameter Inventory 1967-2006

Eastern Tennessee's Walker Branch Watershed provides a 40-year record of forest vegetation inventory from 1967 to 2006. The dataset contains 139,806 observations of tree diameter at breast height (DBH) across four vegetation types, plus a species inventory with lignin-to-nitrogen ratios. It is maintained by ORNL_CLOUD and supersedes earlier versions.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term tree growth trends using the DBH measurements from permanent plots.
• Comparing forest structure and species composition across oak-hickory, pine-oak-hickory, pine, and mesophytic hardwood vegetation types.
• Estimating biomass or carbon stocks using DBH as a key input variable.
• Studying leaf litter quality for decomposition models using the species-specific lignin-to-nitrogen ratio data.
• Calibrating or validating NPP models with reported values ranging from 380 to 790 gC/m2/yr.

Strengths

• Long-term temporal coverage spanning 40 years (1967-2006) from a consistent sampling design.
• Large sample size with 139,806 individual tree diameter observations.
• Includes detailed species-level metadata, such as scientific names and biochemical ratios (g lignin/g N).
• Dataset has been revised and updated, with a 2006 survey superseding earlier versions.

Limitations

• Conflicting last updated dates: one source shows 2026-03-12, another shows 2006-12-31.
• Specific column names and full data schema are not provided in the source metadata.
• License is specified only as 'other-license-specified', requiring user investigation.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Field studies on stratified randomly-located permanent vegetation plots.

Time Range

1967 to 2006

Freshness

2026-03-12 20:24:32.431328

Geography

Walker Branch Watershed, eastern Tennessee, USA