ABoVE BiomeShift Alaska-Yukon Vegetation Cover

Datasets:

• ABoVE BiomeShift

Description: 

This dataset contains data files of modeled top cover estimates by plant functional type (PFT) for the Arctic and Boreal Alaska and Yukon regions. Estimates are presented for each year from 1985 to 2020. Plant functional types include conifer trees, broadleaf trees, deciduous shrubs, evergreen shrubs, graminoids, forbs, and light macrolichens. Estimates were derived through the combination of two stochastic gradient-boosting models that used environmental and spectral covariates.

Environmental covariates represented topographic, climatic, permafrost, hydrographic, and phenological gradients, and spectral covariates were based on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Operational Land Imager (OLI) data collected between 1984-2020. These maps catalog widespread changes in the distribution of PFTs occurring in the Arctic and boreal forest ecosystems, such as tundra shrub expansion, due to the intensification of disturbances such as fire and climate-driven vegetation dynamics.

Organization: University of Alaska Anchorage, ABR, Inc., NASA ABoVE, Oak Ridge National Laboratory DAAC

Website: https://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=2032

Google Earth Engine:

• ABoVE BiomeShift Earth Engine Assets available at projects/foreststructure/ABoVE/BiomeShift/Alaska_Yukon_PFT_202207_Filled

Spatial resolution: 30 m

Time Span: 1985-2020

Variables:

• Broadleaf trees - Birch, Aspen, and Cottonwood trees.
• Conifer trees - Spruce trees are dominant in boreal forest and forest-tundra ecotones, with pines also common in Canada. Deciduous Tamarack also occurs.
• Deciduous shrubs - Primarily Willow, Alder, and Birch shrubs; other shrubs, including blueberry and arctic rose.
• Evergreen shrubs - Widespread low and dwarf shrubs with persistent leaves. Common species include entire leaf mountain-avens, mountain heather, lingonberry, and Labrador tea.
• Forbs - Diverse group of non-graminoid herbaceous flowering plants found troughout the Artic and boreal. Cover is typically low, but may be high in the years following fire.
• Graminoids - Sedges, grasses, and rushes. Can be abundant across a range of habitats from permanently inundated wet meadows to dry uplands. They often have abundant dead litter.
• Light macrolichens - Diverse nonvascular plants consisting of fungal and algal symbionts. Reindeer lichens and other mostly light-collored taxa can form extensive mats on undistrubed, well drained sites and are important winter forage for caribou.

Terms of Use:

• This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use Policy. See the Data Use and Citation Policy for more information.

References:

• Macander, M.J., and P.R. Nelson. 2022. ABoVE: Modeled Top Cover by Plant Functional Type over Alaska and Yukon, 1985-2020. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2032