Arctic Tundra Vegetation Plots With Multi-Decadal Resampling

Vegetation species abundance and environmental data from 60 sites on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain near Atqasuk. The dataset includes baseline measurements from 1975, with 31 of those sites revisited in 2000 and 2010, providing a multi-decadal view. It was compiled by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for geo-botanical classification and analysis.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vegetation community change over 35 years using the 1975, 2000, and 2010 species abundance records.
• Modeling relationships between plant species distribution and environmental variables like altitude, slope, aspect, and topographic position.
• Studying soil-vegetation interactions using paired measurements of soil pH and organic layer depth.
• Classifying and mapping Arctic tundra plant communities across the nine identified types.

Strengths

• Provides a 35-year time series for 31 revisited sites, enabling longitudinal analysis of ecological change.
• Covers 60 distinct study plots across 9 subjectively located plant communities, offering spatial and community diversity.
• Includes detailed site factor measurements such as soil pH, organic layer depth, altitude, slope, and aspect.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-03-13, while another indicates 2010-12 31, creating uncertainty about recent maintenance.
• Key structural details like row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided across any source.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field data collection from subjectively located study plots on Arctic tundra.

Time Range

1975 to 2010

Freshness

2026-03-13 10:27:32.532736

Geography

Arctic Coastal Plain near Atqasuk, Alaska, approximately 60 miles southwest of Barrow, near the Meade River.