Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map

Summary

The December 2002 draft version of the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) defines the spatial extent of dominant vegetation in terms of the dominant plant growth forms and physiognomy. Mapped vegetation extends south to the treeline, which varies with longitude. Spatial coverage is 60°N to 90°N, -180° W to 180°W. The map is available in Adobe PDF format, Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format, and ESRI Shapefile format. The December 2002 draft map is available here. Please refer to the Alaska Geobotany Center Web site for the future final version.

Citing These Data:

Alaska Geobotany Center. Draft Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. December 2002. Scale 1:4,000,000. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Digital Media.

Overview Table

Category Description
Data format

The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) is available in the following formats:

  • Adobe PDF
  • Portable Network Graphics (PNG): 600 x 800, 1200 x 1600, and 2250 x 3000 pixels
  • ESRI Shapefile
Spatial coverage

Mapped vegetation extends south to the treeline, which varies with longitude. Spatial coverage is 60 to 90°N, -180 to 180°W.

File naming convention

ggd639_cavmside1_021224.pdf
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_1200x1600.png
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_2250x3000.png
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_600x800.png
ggd639_cavmside2_021224.pdf
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_1200x1600.png
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_2250x3000.png
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_600x800.png

ggd639_cavm_veg.shp: ESRI Shapefile geometry
ggd639_cavm_veg.shx: ESRI Shapefile feature geometry index
ggd639_cavm_veg.dbf: ESRI Shapefile attributes

cavm_veg.avl: ArcView legend file
vegunits.dbf: dBase file of "vegunit" descriptions
pantone.shd: ESRI Shapefile

File size

ggd639_cavmside1_021224.pdf: 18.25 MB
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_600x800.png: 133 KB
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_1200x1600.png: 429 KB
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_2250x3000.png: 1.16 MB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224.pdf: 9.4 MB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_600x800.png: 185 KB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_1200x1600.png: 613 KB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_2250x3000.png: 725 KB

ggd639_cavm_veg.shp: 8.5 MB
ggd639_cavm_veg.shx: 33 KB
ggd639_cavm_veg.dbf: ESRI Shapefile attributes: 278 KB
cavm_veg.avl: 9 KB
vegunits.dbf: 5 KB
pantone.shd: 106 KB

Procedures for obtaining data The December 2002 draft map is available on this CD-ROM. Please refer to the Alaska Geobotany Center Web site for the future final version.

Table of Contents

1. Contacts and Acknowledgments
2. Detailed Data Description
3. References and Related Publications
4. Document Information

1. Contacts and Acknowledgments:

Investigator(s) Name and Title:

Donald (Skip) A. Walker
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK USA 99775-6780

Technical Contact:

NSIDC User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449  USA
phone: +1 303.492.6199
fax: +1 303.492.2468
form: Contact NSIDC User Services
e-mail: nsidc@nsidc.org

Acknowledgements:

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation Arctic Transitions in the Land-Atmosphere System (ATLAS) project (OPP-9732076).

2. Detailed Data Description:

The December 2002 draft version of the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) shows dominant vegetation, described in terms of the dominant plant growth forms and physiognomy of the dominant vegetation in each mapped polygon. In an ecological sense, physiognomy is the structure or appearance of a vegetation community, or the frequency distribution of plant life form -- a generic plant type such as tree, shrub, perennial herb with buds, perenial herb with a tuber, or annual plant.

The number of canopy layers, degree of cover, and distribution patterns of species within vegetation may also be used to define a physiognomic unit. The CAVM also uses physiographic, soil moisture, and substrate chemistry to define units. Any given physiognomic unit may contain different species in different parts of the globe. See Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map Abstract for more details on the CAVM project. The PDF versions of the CAVM provide details of vegetation classification.

The December 2002 draft map is available on this CD-ROM. File names with "cavmside1" refer to the map, while file names with "cavmside2" refer to the production details of the map. Please refer to the Alaska Geobotany Center for the future final version of the CAVM map.

Format:

The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) is available in the following formats:

The 600 x 800 and 1200 x 1600 pixel PNG files are suitable for on-screen viewing. The 2250 x 3000 PNG file will produce a 7.5" x 10" image when printed at 300 dpi.

The Shapefile has one attribute: vegunit. This is a floating point value from 1 to 19 that refers to vegetation units described in the file "vegunits.dbf." Three of the vegunits are for nunataks, glacier ice, and lakes. The rest of the vegunits describe vegetation. Detailed descriptions of each unit indicate if the unit is water logged, dry, soil type, or other.

All maps were converted from ArcInfo interchange format to ESRI Shapefiles using the ARCSHAPE command. When necessary, field names in attribute tables were changed so that they conformed to the 10-character limit for field names in dBase. Field names in attribute tables longer than seven characters were shortened, and the attributes "cavm_veg#" and "cavm_veg-id" were changed to "cavmveg_" and "cavmveg_id.">

The Shapefile is in a Lambert Azimuthal projection. The following details were generated using the Arc command "describe":

Projection    LAMBERT AZIMUTHAL
Datum                      NONE
Units                    METERS             Spheroid                DEFINED
Major Axis        6370997.00000             Minor Axis       0.00000
Parameters:
radius of the sphere of reference                      6370997.00000
longitude of center of projection                      -180  0  0.00
latitude of center of projection                        90  0  0.000
false easting (meters)                                       0.00000
false northing (meters)                                      0.00000

File Naming Convention:

ggd639_cavmside1_021224.pdf
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_1200x1600.png
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_2250x3000.png
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_600x800.png
ggd639_cavmside2_021224.pdf
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_1200x1600.png
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_2250x3000.png
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_600x800.png

ggd639_cavm_veg.shp: ESRI Shapefile geometry
ggd639_cavm_veg.shx: ESRI Shapefile feature geometry index
ggd639_cavm_veg.dbf: ESRI Shapefile attributes

cavm_veg.avl: ArcView legend file
vegunits.dbf: dBase file of "vegunit" descriptions
pantone.shd: ESRI Shapefile

File Size:

ggd639_cavmside1_021224.pdf: 18.25 MB
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_600x800.png: 133 KB
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_1200x1600.png: 429 KB
ggd639_cavmside1_021224_2250x3000.png: 1.16 MB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224.pdf: 9.4 MB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_600x800.png: 185 KB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_1200x1600.png: 613 KB
ggd639_cavmside2_021224_2250x3000.png: 725 KB

ggd639_cavm_veg.shp: 8.5 MB
ggd639_cavm_veg.shx: 33 KB
ggd639_cavm_veg.dbf: ESRI Shapefile attributes: 278 KB
cavm_veg.avl: 9 KB
vegunits.dbf: 5 KB
pantone.shd: 106 KB

Spatial Coverage:

Mapped vegetation extends south to the treeline, which varies with longitude. Spatial coverage is 60 to 90°N, -180 to 180°W.

3. References:

Walker, D.A. 1999. An integrated vegetation mapping approach for northern Alaska (1:4M scale). International Journal of Remote Sensing 20:2895-2920.

4. Document Information:

Document Creation Date:

May 2003

Document Revision Date:

May 2003

Document URL:

http://nsidc.org/data/docs/fgdc/ggd639_vegetation_arctic/index.html