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Ainsworth, Elizabeth

Publications and source records attributed to Ainsworth, Elizabeth.

The Global Spectra-Trait Initiative: A database of paired leaf spectroscopy and functional traits associated with leaf photosynthetic capacity

Accurate assessment of leaf functional traits is crucial for a diverse range of applications from crop phenotyping to parameterizing global climate models. Leaf reflectance spectroscopy offers a promising avenue to advance ecological and agricultural research by complementing traditional, time-consuming gas exchange measurements. However, the development of robust hyperspectral models for predicting leaf photosynthetic capacity and associated traits from reflectance data has been hindered by limited data availability across species and environments. Here we introduce the Global Spectra-Trait Initiative (GSTI), a collaborative repository of paired leaf hyperspectral and gas exchange measurements from diverse ecosystems. The GSTI repository currently encompasses over 7500 observations from 397 species and 41 sites gathered from 36 published and unpublished studies, thereby offering a key resource for developing and validating hyperspectral models of leaf photosynthetic capacity. The GSTI database is developed on GitHub (https://github.com/plantphys/gsti, last access: 4 January 2026) and published to ESS-DIVE https://doi.org/10.15485/2530733, Lamour et al., 2025). It includes gas exchange data, derived photosynthetic parameters, and key leaf traits often associated with traditional gas exchange measurements such as leaf mass per area and leaf elemental composition. By providing a standardized repository for data sharing and analysis, we present a critical step towards creating hyperspectral models for predicting photosynthetic traits and associated leaf traits for terrestrial plants.

Lamour, Julien [Université of Toulouse (France); U↗

How do drought and heat affect the response of soybean seed yield to elevated O3? An analysis of 15 seasons of free-air O3 concentration enrichment (O3-FACE) studies

Over the past 15 years, soybean seed yield response to season-long elevated O3 concentrations [O3] and to year-to-year weather conditions was studied using free-air O3 concentration enrichment (O3-FACE) in the field at the SoyFACE facility in Central Illinois. Elevated [O3] significantly reduced seed yield across cultivars and years. However, our results quantitatively demonstrate that weather conditions, including soil water availability and air temperature, did not alter yield sensitivity to elevated [O3] in soybean.

drought, elevated O3, heat, O3-FACE, soybean, yiel↗

SoyFACE Fumigation Data Files

This data set is related to the SoyFACE experiments, which are open-air agricultural climate change experiments that have been conducted since 2001. The fumigation experiments take place at the SoyFACE farm and facility in Champaign County, Illinois during the growing season of each year, typically between June and October. - The "SoyFACE Plot Information 2001 to 2021" file contains information about each year of the SoyFACE experiments, including the fumigation treatment type (CO2, O3, or a combination treatment), the crop species, the plots (also referred to as 'rings' and labeled with numbers between 2 and 31) used in each experiment, important experiment dates, and the target concentration levels or 'setpoints' for CO2 and O3 in each experiment. - This data set includes files with minute readings of the fumigation levels ( "SoyFACE 1-Minute Fumigation Data Files" folder) from the SoyFACE experiments. The "Soyface 1-Minute Fumigation Data Files" folder contains sub-folders for each year of the experiments, each of which contains sub-folders for each ring used in that year's experiments. This data set also includes hourly data files for the fumigation experiments ( "SoyFACE Hourly Fumigation Data Files" folder) created from the 1-minute files, and hourly ambient/weather data files for each year of the experiments ( "Hourly Weather and Ambient Data Files" folder). The ambient CO2 and O3 data are collected at SoyFACE, and the weather data are collected from the SURFRAD and WARM weather stations located near the SoyFACE farm. - The "Fumigation Target Percentages" file shows how much of the time the CO2 and O3 fumigation levels are within a 10 or 20 percent margin of the target levels when the fumigation system is turned on. - The "Matlab Files" folder contains custom code (Aspray, E.K.) that was used to clean the "SoyFACE 1-Minute Fumigation Data" files and to generate the "SoyFACE Hourly Fumigation Data" and "Fumigation Target Percentages" files. Code information can be found in the "SoyFACE Hourly Fumigation Data Explanation" file. - Finally, the " * Explanation" files contain information about the column names, units of measurement, and other pertinent information for each data file. * NOTE: We have identified some files in the “SoyFACE 1-Minute Fumigation Data Files” folder in our SoyFACE data set submission that were not downloaded properly - the files were present in the folder, but the actual files were empty. V3 ensures that there are no longer any empty files in the data set.

agricultural↗