treecanopy {lgrdata}

Tree canopy gradients in the Priest River Experimental Forest (PREF)

Description

Leaves of two pine species (35 trees in total) were sampled throughout their canopy, usually 8 samples were taken at various heights. The height is expressed as the 'distance from top', i.e. the distance to the apex of the tree. Leaves (conifer needles) were analysed for nitrogen content (narea), and an index of leaf thickness, the 'leaf mass per area'. The data show the usual pattern of higher leaf thickness (higher LMA) toward the top of the trees, but individual trees show a lot of variation in LMA.

Usage

treecanopy

Format

A data frame with 249 rows and 7 variables:

ID

integer ID of the individual tree

species

integer Pinus ponderosa or Pinus monticola

dfromtop

double Distance from top of tree (where leaf sample was taken) (m)

totheight

double Total height of the tree (m)

height

double Height from the ground (where sample was taken) (m)

LMA

double Leaf mass per area (g m$^-2$)

narea

double Nitrogen per area (gN m$^-2$)

Source

Marshall, J.D., Monserud, R.A. 2003. Foliage height influences specific leaf area of three conifer species. Can J For Res 33:164-170

Examples

data(treecanopy)
if(require(ggplot2)){
 ggplot(treecanopy, aes(dfromtop,LMA,group=ID,col=species)) +
   geom_point() +
   stat_smooth(method="lm",se=FALSE) +
   theme_minimal()
}