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Abstract:The Alaska Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-AK, GIVD-ID: NA-US-014) is a free, publically available database archive of vegetation-plot data from the Arctic tundra region of northern Alaska. The archive currently contains 24 datasets with 3,026 non-overlapping plots. Of these, 74% have geolocation data with 25-m or better precision. Species cover data and header data are stored in a Turboveg database. A standardized Pan Arctic Species List provides a consistent nomenclature for vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens in the archive. A web-based online Alaska Arctic Geoecological Atlas (AGA-AK) allows viewing and downloading the species data in a variety of formats, and provides access to a wide variety of ancillary data. We conducted a preliminary cluster analysis of the first 16 datasets (1,613 plots) to examine how the spectrum of derived clusters is related to the suite of datasets, habitat types, and environmental gradients. We present the contents of the archive, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and provide three supplementary files that include the data dictionary, a list of habitat types, an overview of the datasets, and details of the cluster analysis.

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Rare ecosystems support unique assemblages of flora and fauna within a small geographic area. As such, their conservation represents an effective method of biodiversity protection. The description, mapping, and assessment of rare ecosystems is a necessary and initial conservation action, yet this has not been completed for Alaska.Here, we provide the first comprehensive treatment of rare terrestrial ecosystems for the state. Thirty-five rare systems, representing different levels of ecological organization and geographic scale, are presented. In addition, a gap analysis was conducted to evaluate the systems' current level of land management protection relative to their conservation need. Eleven of the mapped ecosystems are considered adequately protected, two are moderately protected, and 22 are less protected. Conservation ranks are incongruously aligned with land management protection levels such that the rarest systems are often not well protected and the less-imperiled systems are often well protected. On the ecoregion scale, systems with arctic distributions are less protected than are those with boreal and maritime distributions. This rare ecosystem assessment complements species-and landscape-scale conservation studies previously completed for Alaska. Collectively, the recommendations from these assessments provide a science-based strategy for biological conservation in a vulnerable region of the world.