Overview
Regional and global biogeochemical dynamics data can be used to improve
our understanding of the structure and function of various ecosystems;
to enable prediction across spatial and temporal scales; and to
parameterize and validate terrestrial ecosystem models.
The ORNL DAAC compiles, archives, and distributes more than 150 products
from the following projects:
- Climate Collections
- Hydroclimatology Collections
- ISLSCP II Project
- Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
- River Discharge (RIVDIS)
- Russian Land Cover (RLC)
- Soil Collections
- Vegetation Collections
- Vegetation-Ecosystem Modeling (VEMAP)
Climate collections include measured and modeled values for variables such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, radiation, wind velocity, and cloud cover. Climate holdings include station measurement data as well as gridded mean values for the aforementioned variables.
Hydroclimatology is an aspect of climatology that is exclusively concerned with the atmosphere. The hydroclimatology data collections project contains data that are suitable for the study of surface-water conditions, and are focused primarily on North America.
The International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) is part of the Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX) project and is responsible for process modeling, data retrieval algorithms, field experiment design and execution, and the development of global data sets.
The Net Primary Production (NPP) data collection contains field measurements of biomas and estimated NPP for terrestrial sites worldwide. It includes data for 65 intensive study sites in boreal forests, croplands, grasslands, multi-biomes, temperate forest, tropical forest, and Alaskan tundra. This project was sponsored by the Terrestrial Ecology Program of NASA's Office of Earth Science, and ran 1997 through 2005.
The Global River Discharge (RivDIS) data set contains monthly discharge measurements for
1018 stations located throughout the world. The period of record varies widely from
station to station, with a mean of 21.5 years from 1807 through 1991.
The Russian Land Cover (RLC) project provides 12 digital map data products containing landcover, forested area, forest carbon content, and administrative information for Russia and the former USSR from 1984 through 1993. These data were produced by scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center and originally distributed in 2001 on CD-ROM.
Soil Collections contain data on the physical and chemical properties of soils including: soil carbon and nitrogen; soil water-holding capacitiy; soil respiration, and soil textures.
The Atmospheric Tracer Transport Model Intercomparison Project (TransCom) was sponsored by a task force of the International Geosphere-Biosphere (IGBP) called Global Analysis, Integration, and Modeling (GAIM) to quantify and diagnose the uncertainty in inversion calculations of the global carbon budget that result from errors in simulated atmospheric transport. TransCom began in 1993, and to date consists of four phases: TransCom 01, TransCom 02, TransCom 03, and TransCom 04. The first three phases are complete, while TransCom 04 has just been initiated.
Vegetation regulates the flow of numerous biogeochemical cycles, most critically those of water, carbon, and nitrogen; it is also of great importance in local and global energy balances. Vegetation collections data include: biomass; biome characteristics; litter chemistry and decomposition; geocology; root biomass, nutrient concentration, profiles, and turnover; global fire emissions, vegetation, and lai; ecosystem structure and function; phenoregions; and carbon flux.
The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP) was a multi-institutional, international effort that addressed the response of biogeography and biogeochemistry to environmental variability in climate and other drivers in both space and time domains. The project began in 1996 and concluded in 2001.
The Russian Land Cover (RLC) project provides 12 digital map data products containing landcover, forested area, forest carbon content, and administrative information for Russia and the former USSR from 1984 through 1993. These data were produced by scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center and originally distributed in 2001 on CD-ROM.
Soil Collections contain data on the physical and chemical properties of soils including: soil carbon and nitrogen; soil water-holding capacitiy; soil respiration, and soil textures.
The Atmospheric Tracer Transport Model Intercomparison Project (TransCom) was sponsored by a task force of the International Geosphere-Biosphere (IGBP) called Global Analysis, Integration, and Modeling (GAIM) to quantify and diagnose the uncertainty in inversion calculations of the global carbon budget that result from errors in simulated atmospheric transport. TransCom began in 1993, and to date consists of four phases: TransCom 01, TransCom 02, TransCom 03, and TransCom 04. The first three phases are complete, while TransCom 04 has just been initiated.
Vegetation regulates the flow of numerous biogeochemical cycles, most critically those of water, carbon, and nitrogen; it is also of great importance in local and global energy balances. Vegetation collections data include: biomass; biome characteristics; litter chemistry and decomposition; geocology; root biomass, nutrient concentration, profiles, and turnover; global fire emissions, vegetation, and lai; ecosystem structure and function; phenoregions; and carbon flux.
The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP) was a multi-institutional, international effort that addressed the response of biogeography and biogeochemistry to environmental variability in climate and other drivers in both space and time domains. The project began in 1996 and concluded in 2001.
