The Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA) is a data repository for vegetation-plot observations (also called phytosociological relevés) collected from across the circumpolar region. The goal of AVA is to establish and maintain a single meta-database to unite and harmonize vegetation data from the Arctic tundra biome. We also aim to develop an Arctic Vegetation Classification (AVC) and to make the data available as a baseline for future research and conservation applications.

In order to generate comparable vegetation-plot data across the Arctic, several standards are applied. The standardized methodology for describing vegetation is the Braun-Blanquet approach (Walker et al. 2017), which requires at a minimum, complete lists of species and visual estimates of their cover abundance, typically of an area of 2m x 2m square. Plot observational data are imported and stored in the software program TURBOVEG (Hennekens & Schaminée) following the nomenclature of the Pan Arctic Species List (PASL) compiled for the archive.

Over 31’000 potential vegetation-plot observations for inclusion into AVA are identified (Walker et al. 2018), some of them reaching back 50 years. Currently, some data are stored in national databases, while many older data sets are not included yet. Planned efforts include the digitization of high priority data sets and further standardization of national databases (Walker et al. 2019b).

Several publications address the background and development of AVA.