Plant Cover On Niwot Ridge
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Plant Cover Anomalies By Year and Vegetation Type
This figure shows annual deviation in percent cover from the long-term mean for each of five types— forbs, graminoids, shrubs, moss, and lichen— in an alpine dry meadow. Positive values indicate more cover than average while negative values indicate less cover than average.
about Plant Cover Data from Niwot Ridge
Field Site
The plant cover data visualized on this page is collected in an alpine dry meadow on the Saddle of Niwot Ridge (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Climate stations of the Niwot Ridge LTER. Blue stars indicate the location of the subalpine (C1), Saddle, and alpine (D1) climate stations.
Instrumentation and Data Collection:
Permanent 1 m^2 vegetation plots were established near each of the 88 Saddle grid stakes in 1989 by Marilyn Walker, who led the sampling effort until 1997. To estimate plant canopy cover, point quadrat measurements have been made at irregular intervals from 1989 to the present (1989, 1990, 1995, 1997, 2006, 2008 and yearly from 2010 onward). The point-quadrat technique used for sampling was described in Spasojevic et al. (2013) and Auerbach (1992).
Auerbach, N. 1992. Effects of road and dust disturbance in minerotrophic and acidic tundra ecosystems, northern Alaska. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Spasojevic, Marko J, William D Bowman, Hope C Humphries, Timothy R Seastedt, and Katharine N Suding. Changes in alpine vegetation over 21 years: Are patterns across a heterogeneous landscape consistent with predictions?” Ecosphere 4, no. 9 (2013): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1890/es13-00133.1.
How To Cite Data and Figures On this page
The Niwot Ridge LTER welcomes your use of the figures on this page when accompanied by the following citations:
Walker, M., H. Humphries, and Niwot Ridge LTER. 2025. Plant species composition data for Saddle grid, 1989 - ongoing. ver 10. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/1427abaa317306bd0524046c0276b708.
Click on the above links to further explore Niwot Ridge plant cover data, which are hosted on the Environmental Data Initiative Data Portal. Data packages include detailed information about where and how our air temperature data is recorded and processed.
Contact Us
If you have questions about the data presented on this page, please email the Niwot Ridge LTER. To learn more about research, education, and outreach conducted by the Niwot Ridge LTER, please visit our website.