The AKVEG Database is a cloud-hosted, PostgreSQL database of vegetation field data. The database includes 100 survey and monitoring projects from Alaska and adjacent Canada. Because data are harmonized according to a common schema, they are ready to use in analyses. People have used the data to validate spatial products, classify vegetation, identify important wildlife habitat, and quantify environmental change. The data in the AKVEG Database are the foundation for the AKVEG Maps, which include continuous foliar cover maps of present-day conditions and time-series maps.
The public database is free for anyone to use, but database credentials are required to connect to it. Alternatively, users can download an archived version of the database as a set of CSV files.
Data Overview
Summary statistics are based on v2.9.0 (2026-05-06) of the private database.
The database contains 701,216 records of vegetation cover from 44,324 site visits. Only 294 of these site visits represent repeat visits to the same site. Data span from 1975–2025, with 65% records from 2005 or later. Cover estimates using point intercept, visual estimates, and cover class methods are all represented in the database. The database includes records on vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens.
In addition to cover data, the database includes measurements of abiotic top cover, soil properties, and other environmental characteristics. The database also includes detailed methodological metadata to help users determine whether a specific project or site visit is appropriate for their application.
Explore the Data
The interactive map displays all sites in the public version of the AKVEG Database. Sites are categorized by survey perspective: ground-based surveys are indicated by dark red points, and aerial surveys are indicated by bright yellow points.
To view the color key, click the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the upper-left corner.
Click directly on an individual point to view basic site attributes.
For larger viewing or screen-reader navigation, use the full-screen button in the lower-right corner.
The map is intended to provide a high-level overview of the distribution of sites in the database. For full access to the data, please fill out our data request form to receive database credentials.
Resources
- AKVEG Docs: Includes instructions for connecting to the database and Entity-Relationship Diagrams for each of the 13 data tables.
- GitHub code repository: Includes example scripts for connecting to and querying the database in R and Python.
Recommended Citations
The AKVEG Database is released into the public domain under a CC0 waiver. While attribution is not legally required, citing the database helps others discover this resource and allows us to track its impact.
If you used a versioned snapshot of the database from the Arctic Data Center repository, please cite the DOI associated with that release:
Droghini, A., T.W. Nawrocki, A.F. Wells, M.J. Macander, and L.A. Flagstad. (2026). Alaska Vegetation (AKVEG) Database (Version 2.11.1): Taxonomically harmonized vegetation observations for Alaska and adjacent Canada, 1975–2025. Arctic Data Center. doi:10.18739/A2SQ8QK8R.
If you queried data from the live PostgreSQL database, use the citation format below and include your access date and the database version number, which can be found in the database_version table:
Droghini, A., T.W. Nawrocki, A.F. Wells, M.J. Macander, and L.A. Flagstad. (2026). Alaska Vegetation (AKVEG) Database: Taxonomically harmonized vegetation observations for Alaska and adjacent Canada, 1975–2025 [Version X.X]. Available: https://www.akveg.org (Accessed: [Insert Date]).