Data for "Co-regulation of water use and canopy temperature in desert trees"

This repository contains the data for the results presented in the paper "Co-regulation of water use and canopy temperature in desert trees" (Morgan et al., 2025). The dataset consists of remotely sensed retrievals of canopy conductance, transpiration, and temperature from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Data were collected in 2022 at three sites along the Kuiseb River, Namib Desert, Namibia, one in the wetter reaches (15.2942°E, –23.6666°S) and two in the dry lower reaches (15.0315°E, –23.5569°S and 14.8702°E, –23.3601°S). UAV flights were conducted in May and September 2022 to collect multispectral and thermal imagery and meteorological data (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, air pressure, and shortwave solar radiation). Field surveys of 306 trees across the three sites were conducted to identify species, map tree crowns, and measure tree size (diameter at breast height, DBH). Data were collected for two species: Acacia (Vachellia) erioloba and Faidherbia albida. For further description of the methodology and study design, please refer to the manuscript. The dataset includes the meteorological data for each flight, tree surveys, canopy temperature and transpiration observations, site information, and the tree locations. The files are further described below and in the README.txt file. Metadata for each data file are included in attached CSV files. For further questions, contact Bryn Morgan ([e-mail]). Data Data File Description flight_met_data.csv Meteorological data for all UAV flights sites.csv Site information and parameters tree_observations.csv Individual tree observations extracted from UAV flights trees.csv Individual tree demographic information derived from field surveys Geospatial data File Description canopies.shp canopies.geojson Polygon geometries for 306 surveyed tree crowns trunks.shp trunks.geojson Point geometries for 306 surveyed tree stems. Metadata File Description meta_flight_met.csv Variable descriptions for flight_met_data.csv meta_observations.csv Variable descriptions for trees.csv meta_sites.csv Variable descriptions for sites.csv meta_trees.csv Variable descriptions for trees.csv and shapefiles. Manuscript Morgan, B.E., Trugman, A.T., Caylor, K.K. (2025). Co-regulation of water use and canopy temperature in desert trees. Agriculture and Forest Meteorology.