These data were compiled to examine how climate change affects biocrust recovery from both physical and climate-induced disturbance. Objective(s) of our study were to uncover the trajectory of biological soil crust communities and soil stability following distrubance and under warming. These data represent biological soil crust surveys under 5 treatments at three sites. These data were collected at three sites: Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and Castle Valley. Data collection for a physical disturbance experiment where annual human-trampling occurred at the sites in Arches and Canyonlands began in 1996 and was concluded in 2018. Data collection for a 13-year full-factorial in situ climate manipulation experiment (undisturbed control, warming, altered precipitation, warming + altered precipitation) in Castle Valley began in 2005 and was concluded in 2018. These data were collected by U.S. Geological Survey technicians using field surveys of biological soil crusts and soil stability. These data can be used to track biological soil crust communities and soil stability through time under climate manipulation and physical disturbance treatments.

These tabular data were compiled for/to monitor vegetation and biocrust cover in a never grazed grassland located in Canyonlands National Park. An objective, or objectives, of our study was to document potential changes in biocrust and vegetation cover and species composition as related to changes in land use and climate change. These data represent a timeseries of long-term vegetation and biocrust monitoring plots, dating from 1996 to 2021. These data were collected at/in Virginia Park, Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. These data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Research Center in coordination with the US National Park Service. Data were collected via field observations twice annually, once in the Spring (April-May) and once in fall (Sept.) starting in 1996. A weather station was established in 1998 which recorded hourly temperature and precipitation measurements on a portable data storage module which was switched out and downloaded approximately every 3 months. These data can be used to monitor long term trends and changes in vegetation in a rare, protected and never grazed grassland on the Colorado Plateau, and help with monitoring trends in similar dryland ecosystems.

These tabular data were compiled for/to monitor vegetation and biocrust cover in a never grazed grassland located in Canyonlands National Park. An objective, or objectives, of our study was to document potential changes in biocrust and vegetation cover and species composition as related to changes in land use and climate change. These data represent a timeseries of long-term vegetation and biocrust monitoring plots, dating from 1996 to 2021. These data were collected at/in Virginia Park, Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. These data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Research Center in coordination with the US National Park Service. Data were collected via field observations twice annually, once in the Spring (April-May) and once in fall (Sept.) starting in 1996. A weather station was established in 1998 which recorded hourly temperature and precipitation measurements on a portable data storage module which was switched out and downloaded approximately every 3 months. These data can be used to monitor long term trends and changes in vegetation in a rare, protected and never grazed grassland on the Colorado Plateau, and help with monitoring trends in similar dryland ecosystems.

These CLIM-MET stations are meteorological/geological stations that is designed to function in remote areas for long periods of time without human intervention. These stations measure meteorological and wind-erosion parameters under varying climatic and land-use conditions to detect and describe ongoing landscape changes. These data represent multiple years of local detailed landscape and environmental change observations. These data were collected in and close to Canyonlands National Park, Utah from 1 August 2016 to 31 December 2022. These data were collected by U.S. Geological Survey researchers utilizing site visits and automated data collection data loggers. These data can be used to inform studies of local and regional landscape change as well as to provide input into regional climatic models.

These data are daily climate, water balance, and soil moisture data for 270 plots in the National Park Service (NPS) Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) Inventory & Monitoring (I&M) network. Climate data was collected from a gridded, daily climate dataset, Daymet (https://daymet.ornl.gov/). Climate, alongside field-collected soils (SoilDepthsByPlot.csv) and vegetation information, were then used to drive a point based, daily, multi soil-layer, ecosystem water-balance model, SOILWAT2 (https://github.com/DrylandEcology/SOILWAT2). SCPN plots were established to capture the range of ecosystem conditions present in this network. Plant communities of the SCPN are a vital sign for this region, enhancing habitat, stabilizing soils, and moderating hydrology. However, these ecosystems are water-limited, and many plant and ecosystem processes are driven by the amount of water available in the soil profile (i.e. soil moisture). These data provide daily observations of gridded climate and predicted measures of water-balance (ie. transpiration, evaporation, etc.) and soil moisture availability for the last 38 years for 270 NPS plots and can be used to provide insight into plant and ecosystem processes.

These data are daily climate, water balance, and soil moisture data for 270 plots in the National Park Service (NPS) Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) Inventory & Monitoring (I&M) network. Climate data was collected from a gridded, daily climate dataset, Daymet (https://daymet.ornl.gov/). Climate, alongside field-collected soils (SoilDepthsByPlot.csv) and vegetation information, were then used to drive a point based, daily, multi soil-layer, ecosystem water-balance model, SOILWAT2 (https://github.com/DrylandEcology/SOILWAT2). SCPN plots were established to capture the range of ecosystem conditions present in this network. Plant communities of the SCPN are a vital sign for this region, enhancing habitat, stabilizing soils, and moderating hydrology. However, these ecosystems are water-limited, and many plant and ecosystem processes are driven by the amount of water available in the soil profile (i.e. soil moisture). These data provide daily observations of gridded climate and predicted measures of water-balance (ie. transpiration, evaporation, etc.) and soil moisture availability for the last 38 years for 270 NPS plots and can be used to provide insight into plant and ecosystem processes.

These data were compiled to investigate differentiation in physiological activity varies through time for different functional groups. These include the seasonal progress of 13 plant species representing perennial C3 shrub, C3 grass, C4 grass, and annual forb functional groups of the Colorado Plateau, USA. These data can be used to test for differences in carbon assimilation strategies (EcophyAciData) and how photosynthetic rates related to climate (EcophyMonthlyData). Data can be arranged at the seasonal, annual, species-, or functional group-levels to compare multi-level processes.

From 2011-2018 USGS biologists recorded vegetation and biological soil crust (BSC) cover by species and tracked survival of tagged individual plants (388 in total) across 40 locations where paired experimental plots had been installed in 2010. Plant cover was visually estimated using four 75 x 100 cm survey frames. Each site contained a two plots measuring 1.5 by 2.0 meteres: a control plot and a plot covered by a shelter that excluded 35% of incoming precipitation. Plots were selected to represent shallow vs. deep soils, sandstone vs. shale parent material, and dominant plant species on the Colorado Plateau around Moab, Utah. We used an information theoretic approach using generalized linear models to determine the combination of factors that best predicted mortality. We included treatment, year, and species as fixed effects in our first order models to test for treatment effects on mortality while accounting for the influence of interannual-climate variability and species-level differences. Models also included individual plant ID nested within site as random effects to account for pseudo-replication across sites and tagged individuals. We continued with a second set of models by adding abiotic variables including elevation (m), soil depth (shallow or deep), and parent material as additional explanatory variables to the best-fit model.

These data were compiled to assess potential changes in the climatic suitability for 66 species (dominant and associate plant species) within major plant communities in the southwestern United States. An objective of our study was that species within plant communities have unique climate suitability signatures and forecast changes in climatic suitability will not be uniform within the species respective communities or among species within the community. We developed these spatial models of climate suitability under a modern baseline (1960-90) and future climate scenario (2041-2060) using Maxent and WorldClim temperature and precipitation variables. Plant species were chosen that are characteristic species of plant communities in the southwest as mapped by GAP/LANDFIRE National Terrestrial Ecosystems v1 (USGS-Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, and Library – Gap Analysis Project, 2011). Monthly average minimum and maximum temperature and monthly total precipitation values were acquired from WorldClim v1.4 for current climate conditions and Community Climate System Model 4.0 (CCSM4, Gent et al. 2011) representative concentration pathway (rcp) models, 4.5 and 8.5, for the future climate scenario.