Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • Gridded 30-meter resolution estimates of aboveground plant biomass, woody plant biomass and woody plant dominance across the Arctic tundra biome (2020)
Title: Gridded 30-meter resolution estimates of aboveground plant biomass, woody plant biomass and woody plant dominance across the Arctic tundra biome (2020)
This dataset provides estimates of live, oven-dried aboveground biomass of all plants (tree, shrub, graminoid, forb, bryophyte) and all woody plants (tree, shrub) at 30-meter resolution across the Arctic tundra biome. Estimates of woody plant dominance are also provided as: (woody plant biomass / plant biomass) * 100. Plant biomass and woody plant biomass were estimated for each pixel (grams per square meter [g / m2]) using field harvest data for calibration/validation along with modeled seasonal surface reflectance data derived using Landsat satellite imagery and the Continuous Change Detection and Classification algorithm, and other supplementary predictors related to topography, region (e.g. bioclimate zone, ecosystem type), land cover, and derivative spectral products. Modeling was performed in a two-stage process using random forest models. First, biomass presence/absence was predicted using probability forests. Then, biomass quantity was predicted using regression forests. The model outputs were combined to produce final biomass estimates. Pixel uncertainty was assessed using Monte Carlo iterations. Field and remote sensing data were permuted during each iteration and the median (50th percentile, p500) predictions for each pixel were considered best estimates. In addition, this dataset provides the lower (2.5th percentile, p025) and upper (97.5th percentile, p975) bounds of a 95% uncertainty interval. Estimates of woody plant dominance are not modeled directly, but rather derived from plant biomass and woody plant biomass best estimates. The Pan Arctic domain includes both the Polar Arctic, defined using bioclimate zone data from the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Mapping Project (CAVM; Walker et al., 2005), and the Oro Arctic (treeless alpine tundra at high latitudes outside the Polar Arctic), defined using tundra ecoregions from the RESOLVE ecoregions dataset (Dinerstein et al., 2017) and treeline data from CAVM (CAVM Team, 2003). The mapped products focus on Arctic tundra vegetation biomass, but the coarse delineation of this biome meant some forested areas were included within the study domain. Therefore, this dataset also provides a tree mask product that can be used to mask out areas with canopy height ≥ 5 meters. This mask helps reduce, but does not eliminate entirely, areas of dense tree cover within the domain. Users should be cautious of predictions in forested areas as the models used to predict biomass were not well constrained in these areas. This dataset includes 132 files: 128 cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs, 2 tables in comma-separated values (CSV) format, 1 vector polygon in Shapefile format, and one figure in JPEG format. Raster data is provided in the WGS 84 / North Pole LAEA Bering Sea projection (EPSG:3571) at 30 meter (m) resolution. Raster data are tiled with letters representing rows and numbers representing columns, but note that some tiles do not contain unmasked pixels. We included all tiles nonetheless to maintain consistency. Tiling information can be found in the ‘metadata’ directory as a figure (JPEG) or shapefile.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2127273
PAR ID:
10659073
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Publisher / Repository:
NSF Arctic Data Center
Date Published:
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Pan Arctic plant biomass woody plant dominance vegetation distribution remote sensing climate change Landsat
Format(s):
Medium: X Other: text/xml
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Remote Sensing of Environment)
    Chen, Jing M (Ed.)
    The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, placing tundra ecosystems at the forefront of global climate change. Plant biomass is a fundamental ecosystem attribute that is sensitive to changes in climate, closely tied to ecological function, and crucial for constraining ecosystem carbon dynamics. However, the amount, functional composition, and distribution of plant biomass are only coarsely quantified across the Arctic. Therefore, we developed the first moderate resolution (30 m) maps of live aboveground plant biomass (g m− 2) and woody plant dominance (%) for the Arctic tundra biome, including the mountainous Oro Arctic. We modeled biomass for the year 2020 using a new synthesis dataset of field biomass harvest measurements, Landsat satellite seasonal synthetic composites, ancillary geospatial data, and machine learning models. Additionally, we quantified pixel-wise uncertainty in biomass predictions using Monte Carlo simulations and validated the models using a robust, spatially blocked and nested cross-validation procedure. Observed plant and woody plant biomass values ranged from 0 to ~6000 g m− 2 (mean ≈350 g m− 2), while predicted values ranged from 0 to ~4000 g m− 2 (mean ≈275 g m− 2), resulting in model validation root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) ≈400 g m− 2 and R2 ≈ 0.6. Our maps not only capture large-scale patterns of plant biomass and woody plant dominance across the Arctic that are linked to climatic variation (e.g., thawing degree days), but also illustrate how fine-scale patterns are shaped by local surface hydrology, topography, and past disturbance. By providing data on plant biomass across Arctic tundra ecosystems at the highest resolution to date, our maps can significantly advance research and inform decision-making on topics ranging from Arctic vegetation monitoring and wildlife conservation to carbon accounting and land surface modeling 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, NSF Arctic Data Center)
    Plant biomass is a fundamental ecosystem attribute that is sensitive to rapid climatic changes occurring in the Arctic. Nevertheless, measuring plant biomass in the Arctic is logistically challenging and resource intensive. Lack of accessible field data hinders efforts to understand the amount, composition, distribution, and changes in plant biomass in these northern ecosystems. Here, we present The Arctic Plant Aboveground Biomass Synthesis Dataset, which includes field measurements of lichen, bryophyte, herb, shrub, and/or tree aboveground biomass grams per meter squared (g/m^2) on 2327 sample plots in seven countries. We created the synthesis dataset by assembling and harmonizing 32 individual datasets. Aboveground biomass was primarily quantified by harvesting sample plots during mid- to late-summer, though tree and often tall shrub biomass were quantified using surveys and allometric models. Each biomass measurement is associated with metadata including sample date, location, method, data source, and other information. This unique dataset can be leveraged to monitor, map, and model plant biomass across the rapidly warming Arctic. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; (, NSF Arctic Data Center)
    {"Abstract":["Land cover maps are the basic data layer required for understanding and modeling ecological patterns and processes. The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM), produced in 2003, has been widely used as a base map for studies in the arctic tundra biome. However, the relatively coarse resolution and vector format of the map were not compatible with many other data sets. We present a new version of the CAVM, building on the strengths of the original map, while providing a finer spatial resolution, raster format, and improved mapping. The Raster CAVM uses the legend, extent and projection of the original CAVM. The legend has 16 vegetation types, glacier, saline water, freshwater, and non-arctic land. The Raster CAVM divides the original rock-water-vegetation complex map unit that mapped the Canadian Shield into two map units, distinguishing between areas with lichen- and shrub-dominated vegetation. In contrast to the original hand-drawn CAVM, the new map is based on unsupervised classifications of seventeen geographic/floristic sub-sections of the Arctic, using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data (reflectance and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)) and elevation data. The units resulting from the classification were modeled to the CAVM types using a wide variety of ancillary data. The map was reviewed by experts familiar with their particular region, including many of the original authors of the CAVM from Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway (including Svalbard), Russia, and the United States (U.S.). The analysis presented here summarizes the area, geographical distribution, elevation, summer temperatures, and NDVI of the map units. The greater spatial resolution of the Raster CAVM allowed more detailed mapping of water-bodies and mountainous areas. It portrays coastal-inland gradients, and better reflects the heterogeneity of vegetation type distribution than the original CAVM. Accuracy assessment of random 1-kilometer (km) pixels interpreted from 6 Landsat scenes showed an average of 70 percent (%) accuracy, up from 39 % for the original CAVM. The distribution of shrub-dominated types changed the most, with more prostrate shrub tundra mapped in mountainous areas, and less low shrub tundra in lowland areas. This improved mapping is important for quantifying existing and potential changes to land cover, a key environmental indicator for modeling and monitoring ecosystems. The Raster CAVM was released in 2019. Raster map data are available for download from Menedeley Data (DOI: 10.17632/c4xj5rv6kv.2).\n This data record contains PDFs a 36x36-inch print version of the map at at 1:7,000,000. The print map is illustrated with photographs of representative plant communities and species for each of the 16 map units, data on the area of each unit, and information on the making of raster CAVM. The press-quality version includes a 1/8-inch bleed on all sides to allow the map to printed at 36.25 square inches and trimmed to produce a "full bleed" map with color extending to the edge on all sides."]} 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Scientific Data)
    Abstract Plant biomass is a fundamental ecosystem attribute that is sensitive to rapid climatic changes occurring in the Arctic. Nevertheless, measuring plant biomass in the Arctic is logistically challenging and resource intensive. Lack of accessible field data hinders efforts to understand the amount, composition, distribution, and changes in plant biomass in these northern ecosystems. Here, we presentThe Arctic plant aboveground biomass synthesis dataset, which includes field measurements of lichen, bryophyte, herb, shrub, and/or tree aboveground biomass (g m−2) on 2,327 sample plots from 636 field sites in seven countries. We created the synthesis dataset by assembling and harmonizing 32 individual datasets. Aboveground biomass was primarily quantified by harvesting sample plots during mid- to late-summer, though tree and often tall shrub biomass were quantified using surveys and allometric models. Each biomass measurement is associated with metadata including sample date, location, method, data source, and other information. This unique dataset can be leveraged to monitor, map, and model plant biomass across the rapidly warming Arctic. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; (, NSF Arctic Data Center)
    {"Abstract":["### Access\n\nAll files can be accessed and downloaded from the directory via: [http://arcticdata.io/data/10.18739/A2S17SV7D](http://arcticdata.io/data/10.18739/A2S17SV7D).\n\n### Overview\nThis data product contains surface water bodies (excluding ocean) detected from the near infrared band of Maxar satellite imagery across the Pan-Arctic tundra region, as defined by the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (https://www.geobotany.uaf.edu/cavm/). Maxar satellite imagery was acquired between the years 2001-2021 at a spatial resolution of less than 1 meter (m). The dataset is stored in GeoPackages organized into grid cells—tiles and subtiles—following the Polar Geospatial Center Mosaic indexing scheme. Each 100 km (kilometer) × 100 km tile contains a 5 × 5 grid of 20 km × 20 km subtiles.\n\nEach GeoPackage includes: (i) the original raster water mask named "water_raster_mask" and (ii) a vector layer named "water_vector" derived from the mask boundaries. The vector layer also reports water-covered area (m² [meters squared]) for each polygon. Filtering removes very small objects (less than 2 m²) and masks the ocean boundary (National Snow and Ice Data Center) to reduce spurious features."]} 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Text Encoded Conversion
  • XML
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email