Diversity and distribution of vascular plants within the treeline ecotone in Mount Iremel (Southern Urals, Russia)

During the last 100 years, rapid advances of trees towards higher elevations and latitudes have been recorded for various regions worldwide, including the Ural Mountains. Climate warming and tree cover increases can lead to significant changes in the high-mountain vegetation. Direct observations on the vegetation of high-mountain regions provide evidence for an increase in the species diversity of plants at high elevations and changes in the composition of the alpine communities. This study investigated the diversity and distribution of vascular plants within the present-day treeline ecotone in Mount Iremel, the Southern Urals.

The dataset (Trubina and Nesterkov 2021, available from the GBIF network at https://www.gbif.org/dataset/284f1484-10b7-4ef5-87b7-9de1159e6b42) presents the results of an assessment of species richness and frequency of vascular plants at the different elevation levels (from 1203 to 1348 m a.s.l.) and different biotopes (birch-spruce shrub forest, birch-spruce sparse forest and spruce forest with fragments of meadow plant communities) within the treeline ecotone in Mount Iremel, Southern Urals. Observations were carried out at 700 sampling plots with two estimation methods: small-size plot (0.5 × 0.5 m) sampling (672 plots in total) and large-size plot (10 × 10 m) sampling (28 plots). The dataset includes 700 sampling events (= sampling plots), corresponding to 5585 occurrences (vascular plants, mainly identified to species) observed during July 2003. Only occurrences containing plant taxa (occurrenceStatus = present) have been provided. The dataset includes information about distribution and frequency of the Ural endemic species (Anemone narcissiflora subsp. biarmiensis (Juz.) Jalas, Calamagrostis uralensis Litv., Cerastium krylovii Schischk. & Gorczak., Festuca igoschiniae Tzvel., Hieracium iremelense (Elfstr.) Üksip, Lagotis uralensis Schischk, Pleurospermum uralense Hoffm.) and the Pleistocene relict species (Alopecurus magellanicus Lam., Bistorta vivipara (L.) Delarbre, Cerastium pauciflorum Stev. ex. Ser., Pedicularis oederi Vahl, Saussurea controversa DC., Swertia perennis L.). The dataset also provides information that can be useful for estimating biodiversity and plant communities composition within the treeline ecotone at a specified time period and contributes to the study of biodiversity conservation in the Ural Region.