Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map

The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) project was an international effort to map the vegetation and associated characteristics of the circumpolar region, using a false color infrared image created from AVHRR satellite data as the base map. A composite image was created by selecting pixels of maximum reflectance from 1993 and 1995 data. Mapping efforts in Canada, Norway, Greenland, Russia, Iceland and the United States used uniform methods to integrate information on bioclimatic zones, bedrock, surficial geology, acidity of parent material, soils, hydrology, remotely-sensed vegetation classification, Normalized Difference of Vegetation Index (NDVI), previous vegetation studies, and the regional expertise of the mapping scientists. The map is available in Adobe PDF format, ESRI Arc/Info and Shapefile format, among others. See: Walker, D. A., Raynolds, M. K., Daniëls, F. J., Einarsson, E., Elvebakk, A., Gould, W. A., Katenin, A. E., Kholod, S. S., Markon, C. J., Melnikov, E. S., Moskalenko, N. G., Talbot, S. S., Yurtsev, B. A. and The other members of the CAVM Team. 2005. The Circumpolar Arctic vegetation map. Journal of Vegetation Science, 16: 267–282. doi: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2005.tb02365.x