This data set includes monthly grassland biomass data, net primary productivity (NPP) estimates, and climate (rainfall amounts and temperature) data for multiple study sites in major grassland types worldwide. Field measurements of biomass and associated environmental data were compiled for the multiple grassland study sites. When sufficient biomass data were available, NPP was estimated by six different algorithms for 31 grassland sites to examine potential bias associated with the algorithms (Scurlock et al. 2002).

The data consisted of monthly measurements of biomass components including aboveground live material, standing dead, litter, belowground biomass, and belowground dead material. However, many of the sites did not collect all of the components. There are 1,477 field measurements of some component of NPP, all sites having at least aboveground biomass measurements. Of the 31 sites, 20 also measured standing dead and litter or total live plus dead material. In addition, 17 sites measured total belowground biomass, and six of these sites provided separate measurements of live and dead root components. The study sites had from 1 to 29 years of biomass data with an average of three years per site. Five ecoregions were represented, including cold desert steppe, temperate dry steppe, humid savanna, humid temperate, and savanna. The selection of study sites was based on the availability of complete and consistent information on NPP or at least partial NPP, together with the dynamics of live biomass and dead matter for at least the growing season (Scurlock et al. 2002). Site-description metadata, such as latitude, longitude, elevation, and information on vegetation type (biome), soil type, and land-use history were also desirable for inclusion for study sites in the compilation. Study sites were included that had at least one reference from the peer-reviewed literature.

There are two data files in comma-separated (.csv) format with this data set.

Revision Notes: Only the documentation for this data set has been modified from the original data set publication.