Glacial legacies influence riparian vegetation expansion on subarctic Alaska floodplains (2026, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

This dataset underlies the analysis of riparian ecosystems conditions and change in 9 glacierized and 8 nonglacierized catchments in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska by Frost et al., entitled “Glacial legacies influence riparian vegetation expansion on subarctic Alaska floodplains” (2026, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences).

This data package consists of four CSV datafiles, four GIS shapefiles that contain the CSV data in a geospatial format, and a CSV file containing field definitions. Each CSV is described below. The CSV descriptions also apply to the shapefiles.

1. field_definitions.csv. This is a metadata file providing definitions for each field in the subsequent four CSV files and the four shapefiles.

2. stations.csv. This CSV file provides environmental data, spatial data, and imagery metadata for the 170 sampling stations. Each station is located along a National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) flowline pertaining to one of the 17 study streams (see streams.csv, below). The accompanying stations shapefile can be used to display stations directly in a GIS, or the CSV file can be imported into a GIS and the stations drawn using the X/Y coordinates.

3. points.csv. This CSV file provides riparian ecotype interpretation, environmental data, and spatial data for the 17,000 total sample points (100 points per station). Each point is located in the center of 30 m grid cells used for Alaska statewide data products derived from Landsat data. The accompanying points shapefile can be used to display sample points directly in a GIS, or the CSV file can be imported into a GIS and the points drawn using the X/Y coordinates.

4. streams.csv. This CSV file provides the names and attributes of the 17 streams considered in the study. The accompanying stream shapefile can be used to display streams in a GIS.

5. channels.csv. This CSV file provides the attributes of active channels interpreted for the 170 sampling stations using early and late period imagery. The accompanying channels shapefile can be used to display the active channels in a GIS.