Title: ABoVE: Landsat-derived Annual Dominant Land Cover Across ABoVE Core Domain, 1984-2014
Citation: Wang, J. A., Sulla-Menashe, D., Woodcock, C. E., Sonnentag, O., Keeling, R. F., & Friedl, M. A. (2019). <i>ABoVE: Landsat-derived Annual Dominant Land Cover Across ABoVE Core Domain, 1984-2014</i> (Version 1). ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1691 Date Accessed: 2026-09-23
Study Site: Yukon and Northwest Territories
Purpose: A multitude of disturbance agents, such as wildfires, land use, and climate-driven expansion of woody shrubs, is transforming the distribution of plant functional types across Arctic–Boreal ecosystems, which has significant implications for interactions and feedbacks between terrestrial ecosystems and climate in the northern high-latitude. However, because the spatial resolution of existing land cover datasets is too coarse, large-scale land cover changes in the Arctic–Boreal region (ABR) have been poorly characterized. Here, we use 31 years (1984–2014) of moderate spatial resolution (30 m) satellite imagery over a region spanning 4.7 × 106 km2 in Alaska and northwestern Canada to characterize regional-scale ABR land cover changes.
Abstract: This dataset provides two 30-m resolution time series products of annual land cover classifications over the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) core domain for each year of the period 1984-2014. The data are the annual dominant plant functional type in a given 30-m pixel derived from Landsat surface reflectance, landcover training data mapped across the ABoVE domain (using Random Forests modeling, with clustering and interpretation of field photography) and very high resolution imagery to assign land cover classifications. One product has a 15-class land cover classification that breaks out forest and shrub types into several additional classes; the other product provides a simplified, 10-class approach. Classification accuracy assessment results are provided per year. Assessments were based on a probability-based random sample of reference data that supported statistically robust estimation of areas and uncertainties in mapped areas.
Supplemental Information Summary:
Research:
Further Info: Wang, J. A., Sulla-Menashe, D., Woodcock, C. E., Sonnentag, O., Keeling, R. F., & Friedl, M. A. (2019). Extensive land cover change across Arctic–Boreal Northwestern North America from disturbance and climate forcing. Global Change Biology; 26(2): https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14804
Status: Complete
Keywords:
vegetation,
effects of disturbance,
mapping,
land-use,
remote sensing,
climate change,
Geographical coordinates: North: 76.23, South: 50.26 East: -98.97 West: -141.12
Bounding Temporal Extent: Start Date: 1984-01-01, End
Date: 2014-12-31
