Projected sagebrush recovery in greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) habitat from energy development across southwestern Wyoming
Dates
Publication Date
2022-02-22
Start Date
2018
End Date
2118
Citation
Monroe, A.P., Nauman, T.W., Aldridge, C.L., O'Donnell, M.S., Duniway, M.C., Cade, B.S., Manier, D.J., and Anderson, P.J., 2022, Sagebrush recovery analyzed with a dynamic reference approach in southwest Wyoming, USA 1985-2018: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9OP5D76.
Summary
Identifying ecologically relevant reference sites is important for evaluating ecosystem recovery, but the relevance of references that are temporally static is unclear in the context of vast landscapes with varying disturbance and environmental contexts over space and time. This question is pertinent for landscapes dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) which face a suite of threats from disturbance and development but also have lengthy recovery times. Here, we applied a dynamic reference approach to studying and projecting recovery of sagebrush on former oil and gas well pads in southwestern Wyoming, USA using over 3 decades of remote sensing data (1985-2018). We also used quantile regression to evaluate factors that may affect recovery [...]
Summary
Identifying ecologically relevant reference sites is important for evaluating ecosystem recovery, but the relevance of references that are temporally static is unclear in the context of vast landscapes with varying disturbance and environmental contexts over space and time. This question is pertinent for landscapes dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) which face a suite of threats from disturbance and development but also have lengthy recovery times. Here, we applied a dynamic reference approach to studying and projecting recovery of sagebrush on former oil and gas well pads in southwestern Wyoming, USA using over 3 decades of remote sensing data (1985-2018). We also used quantile regression to evaluate factors that may affect recovery including soils, weather, elevation, and well pad characteristics. We then created projections for percent recovery and years to recovery (relative to thresholds for greater sage-grouse [Centrocercus urophasianus] habitat) in areas identified as either nesting or summer (brood-rearing) habitat, resulting in 4 rasters, each with 5 bands representing 5 quantiles.
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sagegrouse_habitat_rasters.xml Original FGDC Metadata
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38.96 KB
application/fgdc+xml
perc_recov_local_nest.tif
180.59 MB
image/geotiff
perc_recov_local_summer.tif
158.23 MB
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time_to_recov_local_nest.tif
33.8 MB
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time_to_recov_local_summer.tif
30.35 MB
image/geotiff
Related External Resources
Type: Related Primary Publication
Monroe, A. P., Nauman, T. W., Aldridge, C. L., O’Donnell, M. S., Duniway, M. C., Cade, B. S., Manier, D. J., & Anderson, P. J. (2022). Assessing vegetation recovery from energy development using a dynamic reference approach. In Ecology and Evolution (Vol. 12, Issue 2). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8508
Greater sage-grouse rely on sagebrush for habitat and evaluating resilience of these systems to disturbance is a pressing research need for conservation. Additionally, management guidelines suggest certain thresholds for maintaining habitat for this species. These projections could be used to evaluate sagebrush recovery in sage-grouse habitat in this region relative to thresholds and given similar disturbance and weather conditions, and to compare outcomes under ideal (high quantiles) or challenging (low quantiles) recovery conditions.