摘要：The leaf area index of Sahelian rangelands and related variablessuch as the vegetation cover fraction, the fraction of absorbedphotosynthetically active radiation and the clumping index were measuredbetween 2005 and 2017 in the Gourma region of northern Mali. Thesevariables, known as climate essential variables, were derived from theacquisition and the processing of hemispherical photographs taken along 1kmlinear sampling transects for five contrasted canopies and one millet field.The same sampling protocol was applied in a seasonally inundated Acacia openforest, along a 0.5km transect, by taking photographs of the understorey andthe tree canopy. These observations collected over more than a decade, in aremote and not very accessible region, provide a relevant and unique dataset that can be used for a better understanding of the Sahelian vegetationresponse to the current rainfall changes. The collected data can also beused for satellite product evaluation and land surface model development andvalidation. This paper aims to present the field work that was carried outduring 13 successive rainy seasons, the measured vegetation variables, andthe associated open database. Finally, a few examples of data use areshown. DOI of the referenced data set: https://doi.org/10.17178/AMMA-CATCH.CE.Veg_Gh.
