The Alaska Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-AK)

Donald A. Walker*, Amy L. Breen, Lisa A. Druckenmiller, Lisa W. Wirth, Will Fisher, Martha K. Raynolds, Jozef Šibík, Marilyn D. Walker, Stephan Hennekens, Keith Boggs, Tina Boucher, Marcel Buchhorn, Helga Bültmann, David J. Cooper, Fred J.A. Daniëls, Scott J. Davidson, James J. Ebersole, Sara C. Elmendorf, Howard E. Epstein, William A. GouldRobert D. Hollister, Colleen M. Iversen, M.T. Jorgenson, Anja Kade, Michael T. Lee, William H. MacKenzie, Robert K. Peet, Jana L. Peirce, Udo Schickhoff, Victoria L. Sloan, Stephen S. Talbot, Craig E. Tweedie, Sandra Villarreal, Patrick J. Webber, Donatella Zona

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Alaska Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-AK, GIVD-ID: NA-US-014) is a free, publically available database archive of vegetation-plot data from the Arctic tundra region of northern Alaska. The archive currently contains 24 datasets with 3,026 non-overlapping plots. Of these, 74% have geolocation data with 25-m or better precision. Species cover data and header data are stored in a Turboveg database. A standardized Pan Arctic Species List provides a consistent nomenclature for vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens in the archive. A web-based online Alaska Arctic Geoecological Atlas (AGA-AK) allows viewing and downloading the species data in a variety of formats, and provides access to a wide variety of ancillary data. We conducted a preliminary cluster analysis of the first 16 datasets (1,613 plots) to examine how the spectrum of derived clusters is related to the suite of datasets, habitat types, and environmental gradients. We present the contents of the archive, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and provide three supplementary files that include the data dictionary, a list of habitat types, an overview of the datasets, and details of the cluster analysis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)221-229
JournalPhytocoenologia
Volume46
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Circumpolar
  • Cluster analysis
  • Database
  • Tundra
  • Turboveg
  • Vegetation classification

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