Introduction

General description

Project description

Study area description: 

Mount Iremel is located in the region of the highest elevation of the Southern Urals within the Iremel-Avalyak mountain region (Fig. 1). On the joint base of Mount Iremel, two peaks rise – the second largest one of the Southern Urals, Bol’shoy Iremel (1582 m a.s.l.) and Malyy Iremel (1450 m a.s.l.). The average annual temperature is 0.3°C and the precipitation average is 600–700 mm, which is typical for the northeast of the mountainous part of the Bashkortostan. The mountain forest, subgoltzy (subalpine) and mountain tundra belts are distinguished in the vegetation of Mount Iremel (Gorchakovskii 1975). The subalpine zone extends from 1100–1150 m to 1350–1400 m a.s.l.. Park-type open spruce and spruce–birch forests and tall-herb meadows, dominated by Alpine knotweed (Persicaria alpina) and snakeweed (Persicaria bistorta), are characteristic for its lower part. In contrast, spruce and birch shrub forests with small-herb meadows prevail in their upper part (Fig. 2) (Nikonova et al. 1992). The range of elevations occupied by the mountain tundra belt is about 200 m. The herb–moss tundra type prevails, but stony, lichen, dwarf shrub–moss and complex tundra types are also presented (Sharafutdinov 1983). Siberian spruce Picea obovata and birch Betula tortuosa are the main tree species forming the treeline. Currently, Mount Iremel has been assigned the status of a nature park.

Figure 1.  

Location of the macro-plots at the slopes of the mountains Bol’shoy and Malyy Iremel, Southern Urals (data from Open Street Map; numbers of the macro-plots correspond to those in the dataset).

Figure 2.  

Birch-spruce shrub forest (A) and birch-spruce sparse forest; (B) at the slopes of mount Malyy Iremel (photos made in 2003).

Sampling methods

Sampling description: 

Vertical transects (Fig. 3) were established within the present-day treeline ecotone at the south-western and southern slopes of mount Malyy Iremel and the north-eastern slope of mount Bol’shoy Iremel (three transects on each slope, nine transects in total). At the southern slope of Malyy Iremel and the north-eastern slope of Bol’shoy Iremel, within each transect, two elevation levels were identified corresponding to biotope types (birch-spruce sparse forest and spruce forest with fragments of meadow plant communities). At the south-western slope of Malyy Iremel, three elevation levels were identified (the corresponding biotopes are birch-spruce sparse forest, birch-spruce shrub forest and spruce forest with fragments of meadow plant communities). Detailed characteristics of the biotopes were published earlier (Trubina 2006).

Figure 3.  

General scheme of an experiment design (Type 1 and Type 2 are the methods for description of the plant species composition).

Three sampling sites, 20 × 20 m (also referred to as macro-plots (= locationID in the dataset, 21 in total), were established within each elevation level. The central points of the sampling sites were positioned at a distance of 50–70 m from each other. Each macroplot was divided into four subplots of 10 × 10 m. At each elevation level, within two macroplots, 12 plots with a size of 1 × 1 m were located (total number 168), within which, in turn, four sampling plots with a size of 0.5 × 0.5 m were placed (total number 672). The small plots with a size of 0.5 × 0.5 m were established for assessment of plant species frequency. Within the third macroplot at each elevation level, the sampling was carried out only in subplots with a size of 10 × 10 m (total number 28).

The sampling process included direct observations and active search to find all vascular plant species in understorey vegetation in sampling plots of two sizes (0.5 × 0.5 m and 10 × 10 m). Sampling effort (time interval for describing all plants in one sampling plot) was approximately 10 minutes for small-sized plots and 50 minutes for large-sized plots. A large number of plots (700 in total) made it possible to take into account the irregularity in distribution of plant species within the study sites. The use of small-sized sampling plots allows obtaining quantitative data (frequency of species) to estimate the species abundance.

Geographic coverage

Taxonomic coverage

Traits coverage

Temporal coverage

Collection data

Usage licence

Data resources

Additional information

Acknowledgements

Author contributions

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