Monitoring of primary production of forbs, grasses and shrubs at Alert, Nunavut

We sampled the production of plants (forbs, grasses and shrubs) at 4 sites (2 in damp, marshy areas and 2 in drier, poorly vegetated habitats) in 2007 and 2008. We sample plant biomass at the end of the growing season in late July to early August by removing 8 quadrats of 20 x 50 cm at each site. All live above-ground biomass is cut, sorted out by species groups (i.e. forbs, grasses, shrub woody parts, shrub non-woody parts) and weighed dry.