Mapping tundra ecosystem plant functional type cover, height and aboveground biomass in Alaska and northwest Canada using unmanned aerial vehicles, 2018-2019

• Main Author: Kathleen Orndahl
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2022
• Subjects: Arctic tundra; vegetation mapping; aboveground biomass; drones; UAV; structure from motion; top cover; Arctic; Canada; permafrost; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A2R785Q5B

Arctic landscapes are rapidly changing with climate warming. Vegetation communities are restructuring, which in turn impacts wildlife, permafrost, carbon cycling and climate feedbacks. Accurately monitoring vegetation change is thus crucial, but notable mismatches in scale occur between current field and satellite-based monitoring. Remote sensing from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has emerged as a bridge between field data and satellite imagery mapping. In this work we assess the viability of using high resolution UAV imagery (RGB and multispectral), along with UAV derived Structure from Motion (SfM) to predict cover, height and above-ground biomass of common Arctic plant functional types (PFTs) across a wide range of vegetation community types. We collected field data and UAV imagery from 45 sites across Alaska and northwest Canada. We then classified UAV imagery by PFT, estimated cover and height, and modeled biomass from UAV-derived volume estimates. Here we present datasets summarizing this data.