Biomes of the Last Glacial Maximum permafrost region

Amelie Lindgren

This spatial data set was constructed from empirical maps of biomes at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 19 – 26,5 kyr BP) across the Northern LGM permafrost region. Three continental maps based on findings of pollen, macrofossil and mammal fossil were merged and translated into mega biomes. These mega biomes do not correspond to the vegetation classes defined in the BIOME 6000 project; instead, they are limited to steppe (-tundra), forest (-tundra) and steppe (-desert), separated into lowland and alpine classes. However, the shape file includes information about the original biome names from the main sources, which potentially could be interpreted in closer alignment with the BIOME 6000 vegetation classes.

This biome map has been used to reconstruct permafrost soil carbon at the LGM. Other potential uses could be for model comparison with empirical data. Local to regional interpretations based on this data set are discouraged.

For more information about this data set, we refer to the publication and its supplementary information.

Terrestrial Land cover LGM Permafrost Biome Vegetation Empirical

References

Lindgren, A., Hugelius, G., Kuhry, P. 2018: Extensive loss of past permafrost carbon but a net accumulation into present-day soils. Nature, 560, 219-222. DOI:10.1038/s41586-018-0371-0

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Data description

The shapefile is available in WGS84, with areas calculated in North Pole Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection. The attribute table includes information about: vegetation = full biome name based on the original references; Reference = original reference; MegaBiome = mega biome class; Permafrost = continuous or discontinuous permafrost; Peat = describes if the polygon is located in a peat region or not; Shelf = describes if the polygon is located on a sea shelf or not; Alpine = describes if the polygon is categorized as alpine or not; Degrees = alpine areas separated into steep (>4° slope) or flat (< 4° slope); Type = repeats the information given in the ‘peat’, and ‘alpine’ sections; SQKM = area in km². Two separate raster files are available in geotiff and NetCDF format, one of them with a resolution of 0.01° and the other 0.05°, all of them in WGS84. The resolution is high to resolve steep slopes. These files only describe permafrost type and the biome compound found in the shapefile attribute table.

1. tundra (-steppe) continuous permafrost;
2. tundra (-steppe) discontinuous permafrost;
3. alpine tundra (-steppe) continuous permafrost;
4. alpine tundra (-steppe) discontinuous permafrost;
5. forest (-steppe) continuous permafrost;
6. forest (-steppe) discontinuous permafrost;
7. alpine forest (-steppe) continuous permafrost;
8. alpine forest (-steppe) discontinuous permafrost;
9. steppe (-desert) continuous permafrost;
10. steppe (-desert) discontinuous permafrost;
11. alpine steppe (-desert) continuous permafrost;
12. alpine steppe (-desert) discontinuous permafrost;
13. alpine steep (>4° slope in alpine areas).

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The Principal Investigator Amelie Lindgren has an ORCID account.