BLM REA YKL 2011 Current (2013) Distribution of Low Shrub in the Yukon River Lowlands - Kuskokwim Mountains - Lime Hills

Some of the YKL rasters intentionally do not align or have the same extent. These rasters were not snapped to a common raster per the authors' discretion. Please review selected rasters prior to use. These varying alignments are a result of the use of differing source data sets and all products derived from them. We recommend that users snap or align rasters as best suits their own projects. - Low shrub is defined as vegetation classes in which shrub contribute 25% to 100% of the vegetation cover, shrubs greater than 1.3 m in height contribute less than 25% of the vegetation cover, and either more than 25% of the site consists of shrubs between 0.2 and 1.3 m in height or shrubs between 0.2 and 1.3 m in height are the most common shrubs. Low shrub covers 12% of the YKL study area and occurs throughout the study area. The low shrub CE is common on wet and mesic mountain slopes, hill slopes, flats, and stream banks and also occurs in lowlands and wetlands. Low shrub sites occur from 20 ft. to 6,255 ft. within the YKL study area. Patch size is small to large and often linear along small streams, and low shrub can be matrix-forming. Soils range from mesic to wet, and mineral to organic peat. Permafrost is often present. Common shrubs include Betula nana, Rhododendron tomentosum, S. pulchra, S. glauca, S. niphoclada, S. chamissonis, S. bebbiana, S. barclayi, Empetrum nigrum, Chamaedaphne calyculata, Vaccinium uliginosum, and Myrica gale. Other shrubs include Alnus viridis ssp. fruiticosa, Therorhodion glandulosum, Oxycoccos microcarpus, Comarum palustre, and Salix fuscescens. Additional species include Calamagrostis canadensis, Carex aquatilis, and Sphagnum spp. Lichen cover (primarily Cladina spp.) can be greater than 20% and occur in large patches between shrubs. The low shrub dataset consists of the following aggregated coarse-scale vegetation classes from the Vegetation Map of Northern, Western, and Interior Alaska: low shrub and low shrub / lichen. These coarse-scale vegetation classes were extracted to the YKL study area.