Long-Term Site Potential Rangeland Fractional Component Cover and Deviation in Wyoming, USA

Monitoring rangelands by identifying the departure of contemporary conditions from long-term ecological potential allows for the disentanglement of natural biophysical gradients driving change from changes due to land uses and other disturbance types. We developed maps of ecological potential (EP) for shrub, sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), perennial herbaceous, litter, and bare ground fractional cover in Wyoming, USA. EP maps correspond to the potential natural vegetation cover expected by environmental conditions in the absence of anthropogenic and natural disturbance as represented by the best growing conditions and least disturbed period of the Landsat archive. EP was predicted using regression tree models with inputs of soil maps and [...]