The Arctic Greening Database v0.1 is an open access database created as part of the ETH+ project "Unraveling biogeochemical, microbial and vegetation feedbacks driving soil development and Arctic greening under a warming climate". The database contains data on soil, vegetation, microbial, and environmental properties from 14 active-layer tundra sites sampled in 2022 and 2023 on Svalbard. The spatially-explicit field observations, field and laboratory measurements provides an interdisciplinary collection of data from a remote and data-poor region to study linkages between vegetation, microbiome and pedogenesis in the context of Arctic Greening.

The database is structured hierarchically with four connected levels: site, plot, sample, and species. At the site level, aggregated data are provided (e.g. GHG fluxes). This is followed by plot-level data (e.g. plant functional type cover) that connects to sample-level data (soil organic matter content) and species-level data. Tables at the same level are connected via one-to-one relationships, from a broader to finer level one-to-many relationships are in place. Sampling and measurement procedures are described in Section 2 of the database description. The metadata file accompanying a specific .csv file provides further information on data creation, sample processing and units. The current version of the dataset consists of a reduced set of tables that will be updated soon with more curated data from Svalbard and Northern Norway (Finnmark). A more extensive overview of the data will be published as a data paper in the future.

A detailed description of the methods can be found in the metadata files for each data table. In addition to that, a general description document is provided which contains information on the sampling design, the study area, and the database structure.

The database description and metadata files provide technical information. An exemplary use of the database is shown in the demo files. They show simple examples of how to use and query data from the database.