| Summary: | Air temperatures across the Arctic are rapidly warming and causing perennially frozen ground known as permafrost to thaw. As permafrost thaws, it has the potential to accelerate global warming through carbon dioxide and methane release. Permafrost thaw rates vary from place to place due, in part, to the expansion of trees and tall shrubs which is also occurring as the Arctic warms. This tall vegetation traps snow, which acts as a blanket and insulates the ground surface from cold air, thawing permafrost. However, in places where permafrost occurs below shorter vegetation, our understanding of how vegetation influences permafrost thaw is lacking, largely because these regions of the Arctic are difficult to access. We collected and compiled this dataset of vegetation, snow, and soil observations at 22 study locations throughout eastern Baffin Island, Canada.
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