Alaska Nunatak Plant Species and Cover Data from 2005 and 2016

Southwest Alaska Network data from eight nunatak sites in Kenai Fjords and Lake Clark National Parks. The package contains five CSV files with site information, species observations, frequency, cover, and plant height data collected during field campaigns in 2005 and 2016. The Southwest Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network gathered this data for long-term monitoring of vegetation composition and structure.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in species richness and frequency between 2005 and 2016 for vascular plants, non-vascular plants, and lichens.
• Model relationships between plant species height class data from point-intercept surveys and site location or environmental factors.
• Assess changes in vegetation cover data from monitoring quadrats over the 11-year period across the eight nunatak sites.
• Compare vascular plant species data from quadrats measured only in 2016 against baseline data from 2005 for new protocol alignment.

Strengths

• Data spans an 11-year time range from 2005 to 2016, enabling trend analysis.
• Covers eight distinct monitoring sites across two major Alaska National Parks.
• Includes multiple measurement types: species observations, frequency, cover, and plant height data.

Limitations

• Small spatial scope limited to eight specific nunatak sites.
• Three of the five data files contain observations from only the 2016 sampling event, limiting temporal comparison.
• One of the original eight sites was not revisited in 2016, creating a data gap.

Provenance

Source

Southwest Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network (SWAN), Department of the Interior.

Collection Method

Field crew visits to nunatak sites for vegetation monitoring using quadrat and point-intercept survey protocols.

Time Range

2005 to 2016

Freshness

Most recent sampling event was in 2016; metadata was last updated in April 2026.

Geography

Kenai Fjords National Park and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA.