Woody vegetation under industrial pollution (Southern Urals, Russia): modifying influence of habitat conditions

The dataset includes the results of an assessment of the woody vegetation biomass at seven habitats (pine, birch, and floodplain forests, reed swamp, sparse birch stand, marshy meadow, and dump of household waste) of areas with different levels of industrial pollution in vicinities of the Karabash, the Southern Urals. Karabash Copper Smelter (KCS) is one of Russia’s most significant point polluters; the main components of its emissions are heavy metals, dust, and sulfur dioxide. Parameters of woody vegetation (diameter at breast height, diameter at root collar level, and biomass) were estimated for seven forest elements (forest stand, subcanopy, half-dead tree of a forest stand, and four types of coarse woody debris (deadwood, fragment of deadwood, dead-standing tree, and stump)) at 41 sampling plots (20 at non-polluted and 21 at polluted areas) and 165 subplots (81 and 84 respectively). The dataset includes 411 sampling events (estimation events of the forest elements at sampling plots and subplots), corresponding to 5 786 occurrences (estimations of the woody vegetation components) observed during July 2012. For most woody vegetation components (84%), an estimate of the aboveground phytomass is given. For each sampling event, information on the presence or absence of woody vegetation species at the considered habitats is provided. The dataset can be used for environmental monitoring, sustainable forest management, modeling forest productivity considering global changes, studying the structure and biodiversity of forest cover, and assessing forests’ carbon-sequestration capacity. In addition, the dataset provides information about different forest ecosystems under the influence of strong industrial pollution.