The US Environmental Protection Agency - Western Ecology Division (EPA) has been monitoring above- and belowground climate data from 23 locations along an Oregon Cascade Mountain Crest-to-Coast transect since 1993. The start date for the sites varied over a several year period. The monitoring sites were located in old-growth and non old-growth coniferous forests (douglas fir, sitka spruce, alder, juniper, ponderosa pine), adjacent clear-cuts, and top of canopy locations. The following variables have been measured every 5-minutes with hourly averages/totals computed for each location: air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), soil temperature (multiple depths), snow depth (where applicable) and volumetric soil moisture (multiple depths). In addition, wind speed, wind direction, shortwave radiation, and barometric pressure were measured at numerous field site locations. Data are provided as unprocessed raw observations; though some minimal "quality assurance" may have been applied to ensure that data contains "reasonable" values and does not exceed expected calibration thresholds. In March 2019, incremental tree growth data (stem circumference measurements) was also submitted to the archive as additional data showing environmental conditions in the observation area. Period of record is 1997 to the present.

These data consist of environmental covariates and estimated plot-level mortality of ponderosa pine trees. Environmental covariates include growing season temperature and soil moisture, and values are summarized into long-term mean conditions, and anomalies observed between forest inventory sampling events for each plot. Data also include plot locations (with uncertainty introduced by the US Forest Service to maintain private property rights), plot basal area, and several variables related to estimated mortality rate of ponderosa pine trees under various assumptions about basal area conditions.

This dataset contains spatially-referenced tabular data associated with a study to characterize vegetation conditions within a dry mixed conifer forest study area (the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness) in southern Oregon, USA, in 2001 (a single year drought without any widespread insect mortality) and 2009 (during a multi-year drought that coincided with a severe outbreak of mountain pine beetle; MPB). Specifically, this study identified refugia from the effects of droughts (in 2001 and in 2009) and interacting drought-MPB effects (in 2009). In this study, refugia were defined as local areas that were relatively buffered against detrimental ecological effects from drought and MPB-attack. Refugia were quantified using remotely-sensed Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) from the Landsat archive across a 30-m resolution grid. This dataset contains the identified refugia in each year (2001 and 2009) along with landscape characteristics (topographic, soil, and forest stand characteristics) that were used as explanatory variables to model the locations of refugia. References: Cartwright, 2018,

This dataset contains spatially-referenced tabular data associated with a study to characterize vegetation conditions within a dry mixed conifer forest study area (the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness) in southern Oregon, USA, in 2001 (a single year drought without any widespread insect mortality) and 2009 (during a multi-year drought that coincided with a severe outbreak of mountain pine beetle; MPB). Specifically, this study identified refugia from the effects of droughts (in 2001 and in 2009) and interacting drought-MPB effects (in 2009). In this study, refugia were defined as local areas that were relatively buffered against detrimental ecological effects from drought and MPB-attack. Refugia were quantified using remotely-sensed Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) from the Landsat archive across a 30-m resolution grid. This dataset contains the identified refugia in each year (2001 and 2009) along with landscape characteristics (topographic, soil, and forest stand characteristics) that were used as explanatory variables to model the locations of refugia. References: Cartwright, 2018,