Long-term monitoring of goose forage plant community standing crop on Akimiski Island, Nunavut

Monitoring of the standing crop or primary production of the main goose forage species has been conducted since 1997. Temporary exclosures are erected seasonally to allow comparison of grazed and ungrazed swards of Puccinelia phyrganodes and Festuca rubra. Samples are collected at 5 sites along the north shore, usually at the beginning, middle and end of the growing season, but in some years every 10 days. Other descriptive or experimental work is conducted in concert with this long term monitoring, including ground cover along transects with visual estimates of standing crop calibrated by selective sampling. ** Data from the IPY years 2007-2009 are available for download. If data are downloaded and used for analyses, it would greatly be appreciated that the principal investigator be informed.