This data set contains species composition, basal area, height, and crown cover of all woody plants at six sites along the Kalahari Transect visited in February-March of 2000 as part of SAFARI 2000. Similar measurements on woody and herbaceous vegetation at the Skukuza Flux Tower site in Kruger National Park, South Africa, were made in June of 2000. Leaf area index was derived from measurements made using PAR sensors at each site.
Sampling protocol was the same at each site, with a slight variation at Skukuza. A grid of 42 points, 6 rows of 7 columns, each 50 m apart, was laid down in an area 300 m x 350 m for the Kalahari Transect sites. At Skukuza, the grid was 7 x 7, or 350 m x 350 m, centered on the tower site, yielding 49 points. At each grid point, all woody plants within a circular plot of a fixed radius were identified and measured. Stem circumference was measured on all stems and basal area per stem was derived. Basal area for the circular plots, per species, was calculated and extrapolated to hectares. Tree and stem densities were determined from the number of trees and stems in subplots and extrapolated to hectares. Woody plant height and canopy cover were determined, and aboveground woody biomass and peak leaf area index were estimated.
The files are in comma-delimited ASCII format, with the first line listing the data set, author, and date, followed by the data records.
Cite this data set as follows:
Scholes, R. J. 2005. SAFARI 2000 Woody Vegetation Characteristics of Kalahari and Skukuza Sites. Data set. Available on-line [http://daac.ornl.gov/] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi:10.3334/ORNLDAAC/777.
Scholes, R. J., P. G. H. Frost, and Y. Tian. 2004. Canopy structure in savannas along a moisture gradient on Kalahari sands. Global Change Biology, 10(3): 292-302.
Scholes, R. J., P. R. Dowty, K. Caylor, P. G. H. Frost, D. A. B. Parsons, J. Ramontsho, and H. H. Shugart. 2002. Trends in savanna structure and composition on an aridity gradient in the Kalahari. Journal of Vegetation Science, 13(3): 419-428.
Scholes, R. J., et al., 2001, The environment and vegetation of the flux measurement site near Skukuza, Kruger National Park. Koedoe, 44(1): 73-83, ISSN 0075-6458.
Scholes, R. J. and D. A. B. Parsons (eds.). 1997. The Kalahari Transect: Research on global change and sustainable development in southern Africa. IGBP Report 42, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Stockholm, Sweden.
The files are in comma-delimited ASCII format, with the first line listing the data set, author, and date. The data records follow and are described in the tables below. A value of -9.99 indicates no data.
Canopy Composition and Structure Data Files
The woody vegetation data (basal area, height, density and biomass) by species are contained in the files:
kt_tree_data.csv
skukuza_tree_data.csv
| Column | Description | Units/Format |
|---|---|---|
| SITE | k=Kataba forest, p=Pandamatenga, m=Near Maun, e=HOORC/MPG Maun tower, o=Okwa river crossing, t=Tshane, skukuza=Skukuza Flux Tower | ASCII |
| SPECIES | Scientific name up to 25 characters | ASCII |
| BA | Woody plant basal area | m2 ha-1 |
| SEBA | Standard error of BA | m2 ha-1 |
| DENSITY | Woody plant density (number of trees per hectare) | ha |
| SEDEN | Standard error of DENSITY (n=42 for KT, n=49 for Skukuza) | ha |
| STEMS | Number of stems per hectare (/ha) | ha |
| HEIGHT | Basal area-weighted average height | m2 ha-1 |
| WOOD | Aboveground woody plant wood dry biomass | kg ha-1 |
| LEAF | Aboveground woody plant leaf dry biomass | kg ha-1 |
| LAI | Leaf Area Index calculated by allometry | m2 m-2 |
LAI Data Files
The LAI data are provided in the files:
kt_lai.csv
skukuza_lai.csv
| Column | Description | Units/Format |
|---|---|---|
| SITE | Site name | ASCII |
| DATE | Date of data collection | yyyymmdd |
| LATITUDE | Latitude coordinate of measurement | degrees, negative south |
| LONGITUDE | Longitude coordinate of measurement | degrees, positive east |
| LAIACC1 | Leaf area index from Accupar instrument at 1 m above ground level (0 m at Skukuza) | m2 m-2 |
| LAIACC1SE | Standard error of LAIACC1 (n=42 for KT, n=49 for Skukuza) | m2 m-2 |
| LAIACC0 | Leaf area index from Accupar instrument at 0 m above ground level (Skukuza only) | m2 m-2 |
| LAIACCSE | Standard error of LAIACC0 (n=49) | m2 m-2 |
| LAIMASS | Leaf area index from allometric calculation of leaf mass and area per mass (maximum tree leaf area index) | m2 m-2 |
| ORIENT | Canopy orientation (ratio of horizontal axis of ellipsoid to vertical axis), KT sites only. | dimensionless |
| Comment | Comments on measurements (Skukuza only) | ASCII |
Skukuza Herbaceous Layer Data File
The herbaceous layer data are contained within the file:
skukuza_herb_data.csv
| Column | Description | Units/Format |
|---|---|---|
| Genus Species | Scientific name up to 25 characters | ASCII |
| Basal area | Species basal area | percent |
| SEBA | Standard error of basal area | percent |
| Biomass | Standing crop dry biomass | g m-2 |
Also included are data input and output files as well as the software code (written in TurboPascal) used to process the data on a Windows PC. The input files are useful for those who want to know the size distribution of stems for demographic studies, since this information is lost in the synthesis.
Information about the study sites, sampling protocol, and data format is found in the following file: http://daac.ornl.gov/daacdata/safari2k/field_campaign/kt_woody_veg/comp/kt_woody_veg_readme.pdf.
2004/12/7
2004/12/7
webmaster@www.daac.ornl.gov