Plant community composition in the Arctic System Science Program (ARCSS) grid at Utqiaġvik and Atqasuk, Alaska

Arctic ecosystems are changing in response to arctic warming, which is proceeding more than twice as fast as the global average. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was established in the early 1990s to understand the effects of warming and environmental variability on tundra vegetation properties and ecosystem function. The ITEX program has been extremely valuable for detection of changes in tundra plant and ecosystem responses to experimental warming and to background climate change across sites that span the major ecosystems of the Arctic.
These files contain data representing the plant community composition and structure of Arctic System Science Program (ARCSS) grid plots at Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) and Atqasuk in a text comma delimited format. The 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 data were collected on all plots that were not under water: 98 plots at Utqiaġvik and 88 plots at Atqasuk. The 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018 data were only collected on a subset of 30 plots at Utqiaġvik and 30 plots at Atqasuk, and the 2021 data were only collected on a subset of 30 plots at Utqiaġvik.