A total of nine sites were surveyed. Three of them ultimately were identified as rill communities, not snowbeds. The rill communities had water running through them and repeated surveys during the spring showed that snow melted from the rill communities as early as the surrounding areas; in other words, they did not have snow later than any other area in the Alpine Garden, as snowbed communities do. The data for each transect also are recorded in individual csv files, named for the transect. Latitude, longitude and elevation recorded with Garmin GPS unit. Accuracy reported by the device as plus/minus 4-5 m. At least 1 transect was established in each snowbed. All transects were composed of 1 square-meter quadrats (1 meter square). Surveys were done in quadrats individually, estimating percent cover of each species present. All vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens that were present were recorded. For subsequent analyses, lichens growing on rock or wood were excluded. Percent cover included a “+” for species present with very little cover (a trace). However, for analyses, this was converted to 1 percent cover since a number was needed to calculate mean cover for each quadrat. All data are recorded in the Excel file, SnowbedDataFinal.xls, with each transect on a separate tab.
