Topsoil temperature data below different vegetation types at Trail Valley Creek, Canada, 2016-2018

This dataset contains topsoil temperature data of 68 sensors, which were installed at the Arctic tundra site of Trail Valley Creek, Northwest Territories, Canada (133.499 °W, 68.742 °N). The sensors were located below six different vegetation types (trees, tall shrubs, riparian tall shrubs, dwarf shrubs, tussocks and lichen tundra) at a depth of 1 to 5 cm, protected from solar radiation. The sensors were placed between 0.22 m to more than 1 km apart from each other. The mean distance between nearest neighbouring sensors was 10.65 m. The sensor network is designed to monitor the effects of changing surface parameters such as vegetation, micro topography and soil moisture on seasonal thawing and freezing processes and on long-term warming of permafrost temperatures. The topsoil temperature was measured using coated iButton temperature loggers (DS1922L) at 0.0625°C resolution and an accuracy of 0.5° C (Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., 2015). The record covers the two periods from 28th of August 2016, 3:00 to 3rd of September 2017, 15:00 and from 4th of September 2017, 12:00 to 22nd of August 2018, 21:00 (UTC, local time + 7 hours) in 3 hourly resolution. Between the two periods, the sensors were removed, read out, and placed at the same positions again. The two periods were analysed by Grünberg et al., 2020, who describe the measurements in more detail.