Post-Fire and Unburned Field Site Data from the Anaktuvuk River Fire, 2008-2017

26 burned and unburned transects were established in 2008 on the Arctic Slope of Alaska following the 2007 Anaktuvuk River tundra fire. Measurements include plant cover by species, shrub and tussock density, thaw depth, and soil depth, collected by NASA during sampling campaigns from 2008 to 2011 and in 2017.

Use Cases

• Modeling post-fire vegetation recovery based on plant cover and species data.
• Analyzing permafrost thaw dynamics based on thaw depth and soil depth measurements.
• Comparing burned versus unburned tundra ecosystem states based on transect data.
• Studying long-term ecological change in the Arctic based on measurements spanning 2008-2017.

Strengths

• Includes data from 26 distinct field transects for comparative analysis.
• Provides measurements across multiple years (2008-2011, 2017) for temporal analysis.
• Contains specific ecological metrics like plant cover by species and thaw depth.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to a single fire event in Alaska.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field measurements from established transects.

Time Range

2008-2011, 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:47:52.530980; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Anaktuvuk River fire area, Arctic Slope of Alaska, US