Rate of permafrost thaw and associated plant community dynamics in peatlands of northwestern Canada

This dataset was collected to document the changing plant community, and associated environmental factors, as warming climate conditions accelerate permafrost thaw in northern peatland environments. Due to the insulative properties of dry, surface peat layers, discontinuous permafrost is preferentially found in peatlands, termed peat plateaux, where the volumetric expansion of ice-rich permafrost has resulted in a raised, dry ground surface dominated by lichens and, often, stunted black spruce forests. As ground temperatures warm, and the ice-rich permafrost thaws, the ground surface sinks to, or below, the water table, and these peat plateau environments change dramatically from black spruce and lichen-dominated peat plateaux to treeless moss- and sedge-dominated collapse scar environments. Data are from a set of 17 sites distributed along a latitudinal gradient in the Mackenzie Valley of Northwestern Canada. At each site, a transect of five to nine contiguous 1x1m quadrats was sampled..., Please note that these methods have been adapted from those in the accompanying paper. Please see the accompanying paper in the Journal of Ecology for full context. 
Field Sampling
In the summers (late June to early September) of 2007 and 2008 (T1: time 1), 16 sites were selected along a latitudinal gradient in the Mackenzie Valley and a single transect was established at each site, perpendicular to the boundary of a collapse scar feature. Each transect was located on an independent peat plateau and consisted of a series of five to nine contiguous 1- x 1- m vegetation quadrats extending from the peat plateau to the collapse scar proper. The transect length (and, thus, the number of quadrats) depended on the distance needed to span this transition such that the transect extended from one or two quadrats into the peat plateau beyond the ‘collapsing slope’ to a point in the collapse scar where vegetation became more consistent and typical of that found in central portions of the collapse ..., , # Rate of permafrost thaw and associated plant community dynamics in peatlands of northwestern Canada

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g4f4qrfz5](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g4f4qrfz5)

## Description of the data and file structure

Detailed data collection and processing methods can be found in the associated paper (Errington et al. in press) and in the Dryad metadata. Further contextual information regarding the broader Mackenzie Valley Permanent Monitoring Plot Network, including site-level and forest mensuration plot data can be found in Errington et al. (2018, 2020). 

This submission contains 4 .csv files:

* “env_transect.csv” contains site/ transect level environmental variables,
* “env_quadrat.csv” contains quadrat-level environmental and vegetation summary variables,
* “community.csv” contains quadrat-level plant community composition, and
* “species.csv” contains species information. 

Missing data is coded as “na”.  Field names and contents are clarified below:

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