Vegetation, soils, and environmental data in Arctic Riparian Shrublands, North Slope Alaska, 2016

These data pertain to vegetation, soils, and ecological site-factors sampled in August 2016 in Arctic riparian shrublands near the Dalton Highway in northern Alaska. Data were collected using an Ecological Land Survey approach as part of a multi-disciplinary study of ecohydrological relationships between shrubs and stream discharge in continuous permafrost environments. Shrub expansion along riparian corridors is a phenomenon that has been observed across the pan-Arctic in recent decades. Increasing air temperatures are often cited as the primary driver of shrub increase, which, in turn, has been documented to show warm soils in winter due to increased snow accumulation. Complex interactions between shrubland development and permafrost conditions raise the question of whether Arctic shrubs are initiating shifts in ground temperature and hydrologic regime, or simply taking advantage of improved conditions brought on by climate change.