This file contains meta-data for file <2000 Webber RATE Plot Data Atqasuk.txt>.
Contains data collected on species and land cover and abundance from Webber's
RATE plots in 2000 at Atqasuk, Alaska.

GENERAL INFORMATION
PI/DATA CONTACT= Webber, Patrick J (PI)/ Tweedie, Craig E (Contact)
FUNDING SOURCE AWARD # = NSF OPP 9906692
DATA COVERAGE = START: 19750101; STOP: 20001231 UTC
PLATFORM/SITE = Atqasuk, Alaska (71o29'N 157o25'W);
INSTRUMENT = None
DATA VERSION = 1.0 (16 January 2002), 
               PRELIMINARY [likely to contain errors]

CONTACT INFORMATION
Craig E. Tweedie
100 North Kedzie Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI  48824-1031
Voice: 517 355-1285
Fax:   517 432-2150
Email: tweedie@msu.edu

DATA COLLECTION
Most plots consisted of 10 1m2 contiguous sub-plots. For each sub
-plot, the presence of all land cover types and all vascular, 
bryophyte and lichen species were recorded. In 10cm by 1m strips 
along each sub-plot, the cover of all land cover and plant types
listed above was estimated. Some species were lumped if 
investigators were unsure of their taxonomy e.g. Draba spp. The 
following texts have been used to standardize nomenclature between
1975 sampling of these plots and sampling in 2000.

Vascular Plants
Hulten, E.  1968.  Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories A 
Manual of the Vascular Plants.  Stand University Press.  
Stanford, California  pp. 1008. 

Lichens
Esslinger, T.L. and R.S. Egan.  1995.  A sixth checklist of the 
lichen-forming, lichenicolus, and allied fungi of the continental 
United States and Canada.  The Bryologist 98:467-549.

Liverworts
Stotler, R. and B. Crandall-Stotler.  1977.  A checklist of the 
Liverworts and Hornworts of North America.  The Bryologist 
80(3):406-428. 

Mosses
Anderson, L.E., H.A Crum, and W.R. Buck.  1990.  List of the 
Mosses of North America north of Mexico.  The Bryologist 
93(4):448-499.  

Sphagnum
Anderson, L.E.  1990.  A checklist of Sphagnum in North America 
North of Mexico.  The Bryologist 93(4):500-501. 

META-DATA FORMAT
The following prefixes have been used to designate data type.
   str - indicates string (text) data
   dtm - indicates date time data
   num - indicates numeric data
   mem - indicates memo data

FIELD DESCRIPTIONS for <2000 Webber RATE Plot Data Atqasuk.txt>

strPlotId   - Plot identification number

strSubPlot  - Sub-plot number.

strSpp      - Species/land cover code

strStatus   - Status of species/land cover L=Live, G=Ground, O=Other

numCover    - Cover in a 10cm x 1m strip in sub-plot

numPresence - Indicates where species/land cover type is present in sub-plot.

memComments - Lists additional comments for record entry.

NOTE
Craig Tweedie and Olga Sumina collected 2000 Data. Craig Tweedie performed data
entry, quality checking and management.

The strStatus class 'O' refers to species and land cover classes measured at
the whole sub-plot level only.

Only 33 of the original 60 plots established in 1975 were relocated and re-sampled
in 2000.

For information on each plot see:
1975-00 Webber RATE Plot Info Atqasuk Metadata.txt
1975-00 Webber RATE Plot Info Atqasuk.txt

For information on species/land cover codes see:
1975-00 Webber RATE Plot Species Info Atqasuk Metadata.txt
1975-00 Webber RATE Plot Species Info Atqasuk.txt

For information on the 1975 re-sampling see:
1975 Webber RATE Plot Data Atqasuk Metadata.txt
1975 Webber RATE Plot Data Atqasuk.txt