SAFARI 2000 Woody Vegetation Characteristics of Kalahari and Skukuza Sites

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 7x7, 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.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated February 17, 2026, 03:22 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 18:42 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 7617ef8d-36b7-42d5-a15b-4a7f05533175
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/777
landingPage https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=kt_woody_veg_777&ac=true
modified 2026-02-16
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash a907b44c4789ce3f990f7baaf175bed76693320fdf2be4e50581117c548bb83d
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial [[{"WestBoundingCoordinate":21.7096,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":-15.4389,"EastBoundingCoordinate":25.4995,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-31.4969}],"CARTESIAN"]
temporal 2000-02-29/2000-02-29
theme {"Earth Science"}