|
|
We mapped eleven years of cheatgrass dieoff in the northern Great Basin. If we estimated that a dieoff occurred in a pixel anytime during that eleven year period, then the pixel was coded as dieoff. If no dieoff occurred, the pixel was coded as a non dieoff. The cheatgrass dieoff probability map was produced by inputting the coded data into a decision-tree model along with topographic data, edaphic data, land cover data, and climate data. A proxy for latitude was included. The resulting model was input into a mapping application that generated a map of cheatgrass dieoff probability.
|
The “Dieoff” contains every year’s cheatgrass dieoff maps as .png files. This also contains the Dieoff Probability map, also as a .png file.
|
Since January 2011, the EROS team studying cheatgrass in the Great Basin has made significant strides developing datasets that identify cheatgrass extents and abundances and cheatgrass dieoff in and around the Winnemucca, Nevada area. Additionally, the team, in partnership with the BLM, received money from the USGS’ Northwest Climate Science Center to expand our cheatgrass dieoff study area to most of the northern Great Basin. In the Winnemucca area, we developed a regression-tree model, trained on Peterson’s cheatgrass maps, that generated a time series (2000 – 2010) of cheatgrass extents and abundances and then analyzed the relationships between this cheatgrass time series and spatially explicit site-specific...
|
Cheatgrass began invading the Great Basin about 100 years ago, changing large parts of the landscape from a rich, diverse ecosystem to one where a single invasive species dominates. Cheatgrass is highly flammable; consequently, cheatgrass-dominated areas experience more fires that burn more land than in native ecosystems, resulting in economic and resource losses. Therefore, the reduced production, or absence, of cheatgrass in previously invaded areas during years of adequate precipitation could be seen as a windfall. However, this cheatgrass dieoff phenomenon creates other problems for land managers such as accelerated soil erosion, loss of early spring food supply for livestock and wildlife, and unknown recovery...
|
|
|
View more...
|
