Terrestrial ecosystem sampling on Victoria Island, King William Island and continental Nunavut, 2013-2014

Various arctic terrestrial ecosystems have been sampled and characterized during the summers of 2013 and 2014 on Victoria Island, as well as King William Island and parts of continental Nunavut. Plot sampling has been performed at selected location, by recording vegetation, environmental and soil characteristics on standardized data cards. These data cards have been photographed, and then digitized and entered into the VPro 15 ecosystem management software, developed by the Government of British Columbia Ministry of Forest's Research Branch. This software allows the tabulation, management and analysis of large amounts of ecosystem data. Additionally, the occurrence of various ecosystem types in these areas was also documented by geo-referenced digital photographs and videos, GPS waypoints and tracks. This data will be entered into a GIS software and overlaid on satellite imagery. By matching pixel values of the satellite images, and other data with different ecosystem types in the field, the Random Forest software model will be trained, with the aim of predicting and delineating terrestrial ecosystems over large areas.