SHIFT: Photosynthetic and Leaf Traits, Santa Barbara County, 2022

This dataset provides leaf images and measurements of leaf traits (area, wet weight, dry weight, leaf mass per area, leaf water content) and leaf pigments (chlorophyll) and species information as sampled from meadow, shrub, and tree from Santa Barbara California, USA. Samples were collected from plots within the Dangermond Preserve, Sedgwick Reserve, and Carpinteria Salt March Reserve during the period of February 23, 2022 to September 27, 2022 for the 2022 NASA Surface Biology Geology (SBG) High Frequency Time series (SHIFT) campaign. The associated data package contains image scans used for the leaf area calculations as well as python processing code used to calculate the area. A comma-separated value (CSV) formatted file includes plot-level leaf area (cm2), wet weight (g), leaf mass area (LMA, g leaf dry mass per meter square), leaf water content (LWC, (wet weight - dry weight/wet weight, %)), chlorophyll fluorescence ratio (CFR), and chlorophyll content (CHL).

This dataset contains 4 files; one file in comma-separated values (.csv) format with the leaf trait data, two zip folders with jpeg leaf images used for area calculations, and one file (.py) with the processing code used to calculate the leaf area.

This is version 2 of this dataset.  Additional data have been added to the CSV file.

This dataset provides leaf images and measurements of leaf traits (area, wet weight, dry weight, leaf mass per area, leaf water content) and leaf pigments (chlorophyll) and species information as sampled from meadow, shrub, and tree from Santa Barbara California, USA. Samples were collected from plots within the Dangermond Preserve, Sedgwick Reserve, and Carpinteria Salt March Reserve during the period of February 23, 2022 to September 27, 2022 for the 2022 NASA Surface Biology Geology (SBG) High Frequency Time series (SHIFT) campaign.  The associated data package contains image scans used for the leaf area calculations as well as python processing code used to calculate the area. A comma-separated value (CSV) formatted file includes plot-level leaf area (cm2), wet weight (g), leaf mass area (LMA, g leaf dry mass per meter square), leaf water content (LWC, (wet weight - dry weight/wet weight, %)), chlorophyll fluorescence ratio (CFR), and chlorophyll content (CHL). 

Project

The Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) High Frequency Time Series (SHIFT) was an airborne and field campaign during February to May, 2022, with a follow up activity for one week in September, in support of NASA's SBG mission. Its study area included a 640-square-mile (1,656-square-kilometer) area in Santa Barbara County and the coastal Pacific waters. The primary goal of the SHIFT campaign was to collect a repeated dense time series of airborne Visible to ShortWave Infrared (VSWIR) airborne imaging spectroscopy data with coincident field measurements in both inland terrestrial and coastal aquatic areas, supported in part by a broad team of research collaborators at academic institutions. The SHIFT campaign leveraged NASA's Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) facility instrument to collect approximately weekly VSWIR imagery across the study area. The SHIFT campaign 1) enables the NASA SBG team to conduct traceability analyses related to the science value of VSWIR revisit without relying on multispectral proxies, 2) enables testing algorithms for consistent performance over seasonal time scales and end-to-end workflows including community distribution, and 3) provides early adoption test cases to SHIFT application users and incubate relationships with basic and applied science partners at the University of California Santa Barbara Sedgwick Reserve and The Nature Conservancy's Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve.

Related datasets:

Queally, N., F.W. Davis, K.D. Chadwick, C. Ade, L. Anderegg, Y. Angel, B. Baker, I. Boving, R.K. Braghiere, P. Brodrick, P. Campbell, J. Cryer, K.C. Cushman, P.D. Dao, A. Dibartolo, R. Eckert, K. Grant, B. Heberlein, M. Johnson, J. Joutras, K. Kerr, C. Kibler, M. Klope, K. Kovach, A. Kreisberg, P. Lovegreen, A.J. Maguire, C.A. Mcmahon, K. Miner, C. Nickles, F. Ochoa, J.P. Ocón, A. Ongjoco, E.M. Ordway, M. Park, R. Pavlick, A.M. Raiho, D.A. Roberts, C.M. Saiki, F.D. Schneider, K. Thompson, P.A. Townsend, E. Vermeer, C. Villanueva-Weeks, N. Vinod, T. Zheng, K. Zumdahl, and D.S. Schimel. 2025. SHIFT: Vegetation Plot Characterization, Santa Barbara County, CA, Version 2, 2022. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2386

• Provides SHIFT plot locations, descriptions, species, fractional cover, phenophase, and sample identifier data.  Plot identifiers are consistent across datasets.

Queally, N., F.W. Davis, K.D. Chadwick, C. Ade, L. Anderegg, Y. Angel, B. Baker, L. Baskaran, I. Boving, R.K. Braghiere, P. Brodrick, P. Campbell, J. Cryer, K.C. Cushman, P.D. Dao, A. Dibartolo, R. Eckert, K. Grant, B. Heberlein, M. Johnson, J. Joutras, K. Kerr, C. Kibler, M. Klope, K. Kovach, A. Kreisberg, P. Lovegreen, A.J. Maguire, C. Mcmahon, K. Miner, C. Nickles, F. Ochoa, J.P. Ocón, A. Ongjoco, E. Ordway, M. Park, R. Pavlick, A.M. Raiho, D.A. Roberts, C.M. Saiki, F.D. Schneider, K. Thompson, P. Townsend, E. Vermeer, C. Villanueva-Weeks, N. Vinod, T. Zheng, K. Zumdahl, and D.S. Schimel. 2024. SHIFT: Vegetation Plot Photos, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 2022. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2334

• Provides photographs of the plots where field vegetation sampling was conducted during the 2022 NASA Surface Biology Geology (SBG) High Frequency Time series (SHIFT) campaign

Zheng, T., N. Queally, K.D. Chadwick, J. Cryer, P. Reim, P. Townsend, E. Marsh, M. Berg, Z. Breuer, N. Burkard, A. Hanson, E. Johnson, D. Lacey, A. Lee, L. Pfau, I. Shifrin, B. Skalitzky, S. Stroschein, J. Van beek, C. Vanden heuvel, and A. Williams. 2023. SHIFT: Reflectance Measurements for Dried and Ground Leaf Materials. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2244

• Provides spectra of dried and ground leaf material

Related Publication:

Chadwick, K.D., et al. 2024. Unlocking ecological insights from subseasonal visible-to-shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy: The SHIFT Campaign. Ecosphere. (under review)

Acknowledgement:

SHIFT is jointly led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Nature Conservancy, and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Spatial Coverage:  Samples were collected from plots at Dangermond Preserve, Sedgwick Reserve, and Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve, all within Santa Barbara County, California, US

Spatial Resolution: Point data

Temporal Resolution: One-time measurements

Temporal Coverage: 2022-02-23 to 2022-09-27

Study Areas: Provided in decimal degrees

Site	Westernmost Longitude	Easternmost Longitude	Northernmost Latitude	Southernmost Latitude
Dangermond Preserve	-120.50	-120.35	34.58	34.44
Sedgwick Reserve	-120.07	-120.01	34.74	34.68
Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve	-119.55	-119.53	34.41	34.39

Data File Information:

This dataset contains the following files: 

SHIFT_Leaf_Traits_LMA_LWC_Chl.csv: Provides the associated leaf traits (wet weight, dry weight, leaf mass per area, leaf water content), leaf pigments (chlorophyll), and species information for each scan. Missing data is indicated by "NA" for text variables and -9999 for numeric variables. Note: For version 2, this file was updated with additional data and the column "ID" was changed to "plot_event_ID" for compatibility with other datasets.

LMAscans.zip: Scanned images of leaves in JPEG (.jpeg) format from which leaf traits were calculated. Numerical portion of the image file name <SampleNumber>_LMA.jpeg corresponds to the <sample_number> field in SHIFT_Leaf_Traits_LMA_LWC_Chl.csv.

ProcessedLMAScans.zip: Final processed leaf images in JPEG (.jpg) format. Numerical portion of file name corresponds to the <sample_number> field in SHIFT_Leaf_Traits_LMA_LWC_Chl.csv.

LeafAreaCalc.py: Processing code, in Python, used to calculate leaf area.

Table 1. Data dictionary for SHIFT_Leaf_Traits_LMA_LWC_Chl.csv. Note: Some variables in this dataset are related to variables in other SHIFT datasets. Please see Figure 2 for additional details. 

Variable	Units	Description
plot_event_ID	-	Leaf specimen identifier
species_or_type	-	Scientific name and common name for leaf specimen
sample_number	-	Identifier for each sample
sample_date	YYYY-MM-DD	Sample date
latitude	degrees north	Latitude of plot in decimal degrees
longitude	degrees east	Longitude of plot in decimal degrees
plot_name	-	Plot name
phenophase	-	Phenophase
fractional_coverage	text	Visual estimate of percent coverage of green vegetation for species in field plot
wet_weight	g	Weight of leaves before drying
dry_weight	g	Weight of dried leaves
LWC	percent	Leaf water content: 100*(wet weight - dry weight)/(wet weight)
CRF		Chlorophyll Fluorescence Ratio
CHL	mg m-2	Relative chlorophyll content
LMA	g m-2	Leaf mass per area in grams dry mass per m2

 

Figure 2. Variable crosswalk table for related SHIFT datasets. 

This dataset provides measurements of leaf traits (area, wet weight, dry weight, leaf mass per area, leaf water content), leaf pigments (chlorophyll), and species information as sampled from meadow, shrub, and tree sites. The data were collected for the purposes of supporting the SBG SHIFT campaign in efforts to provide accurate information on plant communities over a large region of Santa Barbara County, California.

Sample data were manually edited to remove poor quality scans; relative weights were checked to ensure quality.

Study sites

Study sites were located in Santa Barbara County, California. Individual plots approximately eight meters squared in area for meadow and shrub plots were sampled within the study sites. For tree plots, a plot was the ground area of a single tree canopy. Sunlit leaves were collected from the meadow, tree, or shrub species in each plot. The percent coverage within the plot for each collected species was visually estimated.

Leaf trait measurements

Species-level leaf trait measurements from meadow, tree, and shrub species were sampled from the study sites across Santa Barbara county. Sunlit leaves at differing canopy scales were sampled and stored in gallon ziplocks and stored in a cooler until processing (within 1-8 hours). After sample collection, [>XX leaves/at least YY grams] of leaves haphazardly selected from the sample were weighed to record the initial wet weight. Leaves in each sample group were then laid out on red or pink solid color background paper to maximize contrast for the image scanning area calculation. Python was used to process these scans and calculate leaf areas. Samples were then dried out in an oven and weighed to measure the dry weight. The wet weight, dry weight, and calculated leaf area were used to determine the LWC of the sample.

Leaf pigment measurements

Five leaves from each sample were measured for chlorophyll in the field immediately after sample collection using an Opti-Sciences CCM-300. The measurements from the five leaves are averaged to obtain the relative chlorophyll content (CHL) and chlorophyll fluorescence ratio (CFR).

Figure 3. Plot and study area locations in Santa Barbara County in central California,US. 

Chadwick, K.D., et al. 2024. Unlocking ecological insights from subseasonal visible-to-shortwave infrared imaging spectroscopy: The SHIFT Campaign. Ecosphere. (under review)

Chadwick, K.D., N. Queally, T. Zheng, J. Cryer, C. Vanden Heuvel, C. Villanueva-Weeks, C. Ade, L. Anderegg, Y. Angel, B. Baker, I. Boving, R.K. Braghiere, P. Brodrick, P. Campbell, K.C. Cushman, F. Davis, P.D. Dao, A. Dibartolo, R. Eckert, K. Grant, B. Heberlein, M. Johnson, J. Joutras, C. Kibler, M. Klope, K. Kovach, A. Kreisberg, P. Lovegreen, A.J. Maguire, C. Mcmahon, K. Miner, C. Nickles, F. Ochoa, J.P. Ocón, A. Ongjoco, E. Ordway, M. Park, R. Pavlick, A.M. Raiho, D.A. Roberts, D.S. Schimel, F.D. Schneider, K. Thompson, P. Townsend, E. Vermeer, N. Vinod, and K. Zumdahl. 2023. SHIFT Photosynthetic and Leaf Traits, Santa Barbara County, 2022. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2233

Chadwick, K.D., K. Brodrick, T. Grant, A. Goulden, N. Henderson, N. Falco, H. Wainwright, K.H. Williams, M. Bill, I. Breckheimer, E.L. Brodie, H. Steltzer, C.F.R. Williams, B. Blonder, J. Chen, B. Dafflon, J. Damerow, M. Hancher, A. Khurram, J. Lamb, C.R. Lawrence, M. McCormick, J. Musinsky, S. Pierce, A. Polussa, M.H. Porro, A. Scott, H.W. Singh, P.O. Sorensen, C. Varadharajan, B. Whitney, M. Bizuayehu, K. Maher, and Record, ed., Sydne. Integrating airborne remote sensing and field campaigns for ecology and Earth system science. United Kingdom: N. p., 2020.https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13463

Gavlak, R., D. Horneck, and  R.O. Miller. 2005. Soil, plant and water reference methods for the western region. WCC-103 Publ. Fort Collins, CO.

Queally, N., F.W. Davis, K.D. Chadwick, C. Ade, L. Anderegg, Y. Angel, B. Baker, I. Boving, R.K. Braghiere, P. Brodrick, P. Campbell, J. Cryer, K.C. Cushman, P.D. Dao, A. Dibartolo, R. Eckert, K. Grant, B. Heberlein, M. Johnson, J. Joutras, K. Kerr, C. Kibler, M. Klope, K. Kovach, A. Kreisberg, P. Lovegreen, A.J. Maguire, C.A. Mcmahon, K. Miner, C. Nickles, F. Ochoa, J.P. Ocón, A. Ongjoco, E.M. Ordway, M. Park, R. Pavlick, A.M. Raiho, D.A. Roberts, C.M. Saiki, F.D. Schneider, K. Thompson, P.A. Townsend, E. Vermeer, C. Villanueva-Weeks, N. Vinod, T. Zheng, K. Zumdahl, and D.S. Schimel. 2025. SHIFT: Vegetation Plot Characterization, Santa Barbara County, CA, Version 2, 2022. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2386

Queally, N., F.W. Davis, K.D. Chadwick, C. Ade, L. Anderegg, Y. Angel, B. Baker, L. Baskaran, I. Boving, R.K. Braghiere, P. Brodrick, P. Campbell, J. Cryer, K.C. Cushman, P.D. Dao, A. Dibartolo, R. Eckert, K. Grant, B. Heberlein, M. Johnson, J. Joutras, K. Kerr, C. Kibler, M. Klope, K. Kovach, A. Kreisberg, P. Lovegreen, A.J. Maguire, C. Mcmahon, K. Miner, C. Nickles, F. Ochoa, J.P. Ocón, A. Ongjoco, E. Ordway, M. Park, R. Pavlick, A.M. Raiho, D.A. Roberts, C.M. Saiki, F.D. Schneider, K. Thompson, P. Townsend, E. Vermeer, C. Villanueva-Weeks, N. Vinod, T. Zheng, K. Zumdahl, and D.S. Schimel. 2024. SHIFT: Vegetation Plot Photos, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 2022. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2334

Zheng, T., N. Queally, K.D. Chadwick, J. Cryer, P. Reim, P. Townsend, E. Marsh, M. Berg, Z. Breuer, N. Burkard, A. Hanson, E. Johnson, D. Lacey, A. Lee, L. Pfau, I. Shifrin, B. Skalitzky, S. Stroschein, J. Van beek, C. Vanden heuvel, and A. Williams. 2023. SHIFT: Reflectance Measurements for Dried and Ground Leaf Materials. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2244