This dataset contains observations used to better understand the initial establishment of sagebrush (Artemisia sp.), in the first 1-2 years post-wildfire. Field data come from 460 sagebrush populations sampled across the Great Basin and many GIS-derived co-variates are included as well.

This dataset contains observations used to better understand the initial establishment of sagebrush (Artemisia sp.), in the first 1-2 years post-wildfire. Field data come from 460 sagebrush populations sampled across the Great Basin and many GIS-derived co-variates are included as well.

The need to monitor change in sagebrush steppe is urgent due to the increasing impacts of climate change, shifting fire regimes, and management practices on ecosystem health. Remote sensing provides a cost-effective and reliable method for monitoring change through time and attributing changes to drivers. We report an automated method of mapping rangeland fractional component cover over a large portion of the Northern Great Basin, USA, from 1986 to 2016 using a dense Landsat imagery time series. 2012 was excluded from the time-series due to a lack of quality imagery. Our method improved upon the traditional change vector method by considering the legacy of change at each pixel. We evaluate cover trends stratified by climate bin and assess spatial and temporal relationships with climate variables. Finally, we statistically evaluate the minimum time density needed to accurately characterize temporal patterns and relationships with climate drivers. Over the 30-yr period, shrub cover declined and bare ground increased. While few pixels had >10% cover change, a large majority had at least some change. All fractional components had significant spatial relationships with water year precipitation (WYPRCP), maximum temperature (WYTMAX), and minimum temperature (WYTMIN) in all years. Shrub and sagebrush cover in particular respond positively to warming WYTMIN, resulting from the largest increases in WYTMIN being in the coolest and wettest areas, and respond negatively to warming WYTMAX because the largest increases in WYTMAX are in the warmest and driest areas. These data can be used to answer critical questions regarding the influence of climate change and the suitability of management practices. Component products can be downloaded from www.mrlc.gov.

The need to monitor change in sagebrush steppe is urgent due to the increasing impacts of climate change, shifting fire regimes, and management practices on ecosystem health. Remote sensing provides a cost-effective and reliable method for monitoring change through time and attributing changes to drivers. We report an automated method of mapping rangeland fractional component cover over a large portion of the Northern Great Basin, USA, from 1986 to 2016 using a dense Landsat imagery time series. 2012 was excluded from the time-series due to a lack of quality imagery. Our method improved upon the traditional change vector method by considering the legacy of change at each pixel. We evaluate cover trends stratified by climate bin and assess spatial and temporal relationships with climate variables. Finally, we statistically evaluate the minimum time density needed to accurately characterize temporal patterns and relationships with climate drivers. Over the 30-yr period, shrub cover declined and bare ground increased. While few pixels had >10% cover change, a large majority had at least some change. All fractional components had significant spatial relationships with water year precipitation (WYPRCP), maximum temperature (WYTMAX), and minimum temperature (WYTMIN) in all years. Shrub and sagebrush cover in particular respond positively to warming WYTMIN, resulting from the largest increases in WYTMIN being in the coolest and wettest areas, and respond negatively to warming WYTMAX because the largest increases in WYTMAX are in the warmest and driest areas. These data can be used to answer critical questions regarding the influence of climate change and the suitability of management practices. Component products can be downloaded from www.mrlc.gov.

This raster portrays the distribution of sagebrush within the geographic extent of the sagebrush biome in the United States. It was created for the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agency’s (WAFWA) Sagebrush Conservation Strategy publication as a visual for the schematic figures and to calculate summary statistics. This distribution incorporates the most recently available sagebrush cover mapping (Xian et al. 2015, Rigge et al. 2019) and classified LANDFIRE EVT (Department of Ecosystem Science, University of Wyoming 2016). Both datasets were rigorously evaluated and extensive ground measurements taken to evaluate accuracy by the respective authors. We created a combined binary sagebrush distribution by classifying the Rigge et al. (2019) product to a binary form where sagebrush cover was greater than 5%, which is equal to the root mean squared error of the analysis (RMSE = 5.09). The Rigge et al. (2019) raster is not complete across the sagebrush biome, so we filled in the areas of NoData with the 'Sagebrush-dominated Ecological Systems' pixels from binary sagebrush raster (Department of Ecosystem Science, University of Wyoming 2016) to create a continuous raster across the sagebrush biome. The input layers are informative to conditions circa the beginning of 2015.

This raster portrays the distribution of sagebrush within the geographic extent of the sagebrush biome in the United States. It was created for the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agency’s (WAFWA) Sagebrush Conservation Strategy publication as a visual for the schematic figures and to calculate summary statistics. This distribution incorporates the most recently available sagebrush cover mapping (Xian et al. 2015, Rigge et al. 2019) and classified LANDFIRE EVT (Department of Ecosystem Science, University of Wyoming 2016). Both datasets were rigorously evaluated and extensive ground measurements taken to evaluate accuracy by the respective authors. We created a combined binary sagebrush distribution by classifying the Rigge et al. (2019) product to a binary form where sagebrush cover was greater than 5%, which is equal to the root mean squared error of the analysis (RMSE = 5.09). The Rigge et al. (2019) raster is not complete across the sagebrush biome, so we filled in the areas of NoData with the 'Sagebrush-dominated Ecological Systems' pixels from binary sagebrush raster (Department of Ecosystem Science, University of Wyoming 2016) to create a continuous raster across the sagebrush biome. The input layers are informative to conditions circa the beginning of 2015.

This geodatabase consists of a point feature class and related tables representing sample sites where vegetation data were collected from 2007 to 2013 in Clark and Lincoln Counties, Nevada. Samples are identified with a vegetation stand name and classified from the alliance to the class level of the National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVC; Federal Geographic Data Committee, 2008). The database is also available in tabular format as tab-delimited text files or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Reference Cited: Federal Geographic Data Committee, 2008, National Vegetation Classification Standard, Version 2, FGDC-STD-005-2008, accessed December 6, 2012, http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/projects/FGDC-standards-projects/vegetation/NVCS_V2_FINAL_2008.pdf.

NCALM Seed. PI: Justin Huntington, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV. The survey area is a 48 square kilometer irregular polygon in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California.