Understory Vegetation Biomass from Selected Burned and Unburned sites in Alaska

Vegetation was harvested from plots that were located at the end of previously established 30-m transects at each site, except at one site where plots were randomly selected. Vascular vegetation was clipped from 50 cm x 50 cm plots, and non-vascular vegetation was clipped from 25 cm x 25 cm plots.

All harvested vegetation was sorted by functional group or by species where identification was possible. The sorted vegetation was dried and then weighed to determine biomass. Locations were selected to investigate fire disturbance, to span the range of permafrost regions from continuous to sporadic, and to cover vegetation types from boreal forests, tussock tundra, upland willow/herbaceous scrub, and lowland fen and wet tundra sites across Alaska.