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One of the major concerns about global warming is the potential for an increase in decomposition and soil respiration rates, increasing CO2 emissions and creating a positive feedback between global warming and soil respiration. This is particularly important in ecosystems with large belowground biomass, such as grasslands where over 90% of the carbon is allocated belowground. A better understanding of the relative influence of climate and litter quality on litter decomposition is needed to predict these changes accurately in grasslands. The Long-Term Intersite Decomposition Experiment Team (LIDET) dataset was used to evaluate the influence of climatic variables (temperature, precipitation, actual evapotranspiration,...
MOAB, Utah — Drier conditions projected to result from climate change in the Southwest will likely reduce perennial vegetation cover and result in increased dust storm activity in the future, according to a new study by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California, Los Angeles. The research team examined climate, vegetation and soil measurements collected over a 20-year period in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in southeastern Utah. Long-term data indicated that perennial vegetation in grasslands and some shrublands declined with temperature increases. The study then used these soil and vegetation measurements in a model to project future wind erosion. The findings strongly...
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This dataset is from a restoration field study conducted at seven sites distributed across the southern Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona as part of the RestoreNet dryland restoration field trial network. The data consist of post-experimental restoration treatment (2018-2019) plant density and height measurements along with site precipitation, temperature, and soils data. Plant data were collected through plot monitoring visits distributed throughout the first year following restoration treatments and seeding.
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These tabular data were compiled to document how key plant trait values change during plant development, particularly seedling stages, and in relation to soil moisture. An objective of our study was to answer three main research questions: (1) Do seedling trait values differ across early to late stages of seedling development and do those trajectories vary among plant species and functional types (i.e., forbs vs. grasses)?; (2) Does water availability influence seedling ontogenetic trait variation? and, if so, does this variation affect plant species drought performance?; and (3) Do seedling trait values at early stages of development differ from complied trait database values for species? These data represent key...
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These data were compiled for a networked field-trial restoration experiment (RestoreNet) that spans the southwestern US, including 21 distributed field sites. The objective of our study was to understand the environmental factors and restoration practices (including seed mixes and soil manipulation) that increase plant establishment and survival to ultimate improve restoration outcomes in dryland environments. These data represent point-in-time plant density and height measurements at our field sites at the time of monitoring. These data were collected at 21 arid and semi-arid sites, located throughout Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and California. These data were collected by USGS Restoration Assessment and Monitoring...
Categories: Data; Tags: Arizona, Botany, California, Chihuahuan Desert, Climatology, All tags...
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The dataset describes rangeland monitoring results from the Hanksville, UT (USA) area. Monitoring results consist of canopy cover of plant species and functional types according to ecological site group from 1967 to 2013. The study area is bordered on the north by the Wayne-Emery County line, on the west by Capitol Reef National Park, and on the south and east by the Colorado River, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Canyonlands National Park. Cover was estimated every 1 to 5 years (except the last measurement that had a 12 year interval) from 1967 to 2013 at 36 permanently marked sites in 15 livestock grazing allotments/pastures. Canopy cover of perennial plant species was estimated to the nearest tenth...
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These data were compiled to allow further understanding of how aboveground net primary production of different plant functional types in ecosystems along an elevation gradient in the southwestern U.S. respond to extreme changes in warm-season precipitation (drought and water addition) associated with the North American Monsoon. The objectives of the study were to 1) determine how primary production responds to warm-season precipitation extremes over time; 2) compare production sensitivities to warm-season precipitation (slopes of production – precipitation relationships) across an elevation gradient; 3) evaluate whether the sensitivity of production differed under extreme dry and wet years compared to ambient precipitation....
Categories: Data; Tags: Arizona, Botany, Climatology, Coconino County, Colorado Plateau, All tags...
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These data were compiled for the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to identify and quantify the spatial distribution of fine fuels in relation to wildfire management across jurisdictional boundaries. Objective(s) of our study were to map the 2021 annual distribution of the biomass (kg/ha) of fine fuels (grasses, shrubs, and forbs) for the whole of the Altar Valley, AZ, including the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. These data represent estimated biomass of fine fuels (kg/ha) at a 10-m resolution. These data were collected/created in September through October 2021 for the Altar Valley, located in Pima County, AZ, USA. These data were collected/created by the U.S. Geological...
Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.1389/full): Woody plant encroachment and overall declines in perennial vegetation in dryland regions can alter ecosystem properties and indicate land degradation, but the causes of these shifts remain controversial. Determining how changes in the abundance and distribution of grass and woody plants are influenced by conditions that regulate water availability at a regional scale provides a baseline to compare how management actions alter the composition of these vegetation types at a more local scale and can be used to predict future shifts under climate change. Using a remote-sensing-based approach, we assessed the balance between grasses and woody plants...
Climate change predictions include warming and drying trends, which are expected to be particularly pronounced in the southwestern United States. In this region, grassland dynamics are tightly linked to available moisture, yet it has proven difficult to resolve what aspects of climate drive vegetation change. In part, this is because it is unclear how heterogeneity in soils affects plant responses to climate. Here, we combine climate and soil properties with a mechanistic soil water model to explain temporal fluctuations in perennial grass cover, quantify where and the degree to which incorporating soil water dynamics enhances our ability to understand temporal patterns, and explore the potential consequences of...
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Note: this data release has been deprecated. Please see new data release here: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9347I2H. These data were compiled to estimate fine-fuel abundance and distribution across the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona, USA. The objectives of the study were to develop and validate annual estimates of fine fuel (biomass of herbaceous vegetation) for the refuge and to assess changes in fine fuels through time in response to wildfire and prescribed fire. These data represent the amount of herbaceous biomass or fine fuels (kg/ha) present at a 10-m resolution derived from in-situ estimates of ground cover modeled with satellite imagery. These satellite image data were collected over...
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Explore climate change impacts on vegetation across the Desert and Southern Rockies LCCs using historical monitoring data collected from 23 sites across the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Mojave and Colorado Plateau deserts for 30-50 years. This data will then be combined with ecosystem water balance model simulations to establish features of water availability critical for plant species response. Results will allow managers to identify species and communities at risk under future climate scenarios based on predicted changes in plant water availability. Due to the high variability in soils, incorporating a detailed understanding of soil water availability beyond bioclimatic envelope approaches in the desert Southwest is essential...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, Academics & scientific researchers, All tags...
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This climate and vegetation index dataset was collected from readily available open source data, such as Landsat. The data represents points across the northern Colorado plateau. The vegetation type was defined based on U.S. Geological Survey ReGAP data. Using compositing techniques by season we developed a dataset of lag and legacy for each point. We could then look to understand how both lag and legacy impacted vegetation production across the time series. In this dataset we focus on the soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), the standardized precipitation and evapotranspiration index (SPEI), and precipitation. Included in this dataset are climate lags of 3,6,9 and 12 months. Additionally, the legacy construct...
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These data were compiled for a comprehensive review of pinyon-juniper communities including Pinus edulis, Pinus monophylla, Juniperus osteosperma, Juniperus monosperma, and Juniperus scopulorum. Compiled are a list of references cataloged by the topic of interest resulting from the literature search. The characterization for each reference includes the focal species, descriptions of the site(s) the study was conducted at, type of study, any land management treatments and the measured response variables. The location data for publications that provided location information have also been compiled in order to compare the geographic distribution of these studies with the distribution of the focal tree species.
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Water cycling and availability exert dominant control over ecological processes and the sustainability of ecosystem services in water - limited ecosystems. Consequently, dryland ecosystems have the potential to be dramatically impacted by hydrologic alterations emerging from global change, notably increasing temperature and altered precipitation patterns. In addition, the possibility of directly manipulating global solar radiation by augmenting stratospheric SO2 is receiving increasing attention as CO2 emissions continue to increase - these manipulations are anticipated to decrease precipitation, a change that may be as influential as temperature increases in dryland ecosystems. We propose to integrate a proven...
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Drylands cover 40% of the global terrestrial surface and provide important ecosystem services. While drylands as a whole are expected to increase in extent and aridity in coming decades, temperature and precipitation forecasts vary by latitude and geographic region suggesting different trajectories for tropical, subtropical, and temperate drylands. Uncertainty in the future of tropical and subtropical drylands is well constrained, whereas soil moisture and ecological droughts, which drive vegetation productivity and composition, remain poorly understood in temperate drylands. Here we show that, over the twenty first century, temperate drylands may contract by a third, primarily converting to subtropical drylands,...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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Abstract The distribution of rainfed agriculture, which accounts for approximately ¾ of global croplands, is expected to respond to climate change and human population growth and these responses may be especially pronounced in water limited areas. Because the environmental conditions that support rainfed agriculture are determined by climate, weather, and soil conditions that affect overall and transient water availability, predicting this response has proven difficult, especially in temperate regions that support much of the world’s agriculture. Here, we show that suitability to support rainfed agriculture in temperate dryland climates can be effectively represented by just two daily environmental variables: moist...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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These data were compiled to estimate fine-fuel abundance and distribution across the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona, USA. The objectives of the study were to develop and validate annual estimates of fine fuel (biomass of herbaceous vegetation) for the refuge and to assess changes in fine fuels through time in response to wildfire and prescribed fire. These data represent the amount of herbaceous biomass or fine fuels (kg/ha) present at a 10-m resolution derived from in-situ estimates of ground cover modeled with satellite imagery. These satellite image data were collected over the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge during leaf-on (August) and leaf-off (November) time periods annually...
Managers of public lands in the western U.S. face enormous challenges under recent warmer, drier conditions that are expected to worsen. This enhanced aridity can lead to permanent degradation of wildlife habitat and ecological services upon which humans depend. To help managers confront these challenges, our project used a network of vegetation monitoring data that managers already collect from the ground and air (satellite imagery) with climate conditions to determine which types of habitat are vulnerable to drought and elevated temperatures, what habitat changes may occur, and where across the landscape these changes will be most pronounced. We employed new assessment tools to determine how soils, topography,...
Abstract (from ScienceDirect): Climate change effects on vegetation will likely be strong in the southwestern U.S., which is projected to experience large increases in temperature and changes in precipitation. Plant communities in the southwestern U.S. may be particularly vulnerable to climate change as the productivity of many plant species is strongly water-limited. This study examines the relationship between climate and vegetation condition using a time-series of Landsat imagery across grassland, shrubland, and woodland communities on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We improve on poorly understood inter-annual climate-vegetation relationships by exploring how the responses of different plant communities depend on...


map background search result map search result map Impact of Ecosystem Water Balance on Desert Vegetation: Quantification of Historical Patterns and Projection under Climate Change Rangeland Ecology Monitoring Data, Utah, 1967-2013 Dataset for climate legacy and lag effects on dryland plant communities in the southwestern U.S. Pinyon and Juniper location data, including a literature review citation list of Pinyon-Juniper systems from 1909 to 2018 RestoreNet: seedling treatment and site environmental characteristics data at restoration treatment plots in northern Arizona, USA Plant trait and soil moisture data associated with ontogenetic trait shifts - seedlings display high trait variability during early stages of development Remotely sensed fine fuel data for Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) from 2015 to 2020 Remotely sensed fine-fuel data for Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) from 2015 to 2020 Primary production and precipitation data along an elevation gradient in and adjacent to the San Francisco Mountains near Flagstaff, Arizona - 2015-2020 Predicted biomass of fine fuel for Altar Valley, Arizona, 2021 RestoreNet subplot data for 21 sites within major dryland ecoregions throughout the southwestern United States, 2018 - 2021 Plant trait and soil moisture data associated with ontogenetic trait shifts - seedlings display high trait variability during early stages of development Remotely sensed fine fuel data for Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) from 2015 to 2020 Remotely sensed fine-fuel data for Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) from 2015 to 2020 Primary production and precipitation data along an elevation gradient in and adjacent to the San Francisco Mountains near Flagstaff, Arizona - 2015-2020 Predicted biomass of fine fuel for Altar Valley, Arizona, 2021 Rangeland Ecology Monitoring Data, Utah, 1967-2013 RestoreNet: seedling treatment and site environmental characteristics data at restoration treatment plots in northern Arizona, USA Dataset for climate legacy and lag effects on dryland plant communities in the southwestern U.S. RestoreNet subplot data for 21 sites within major dryland ecoregions throughout the southwestern United States, 2018 - 2021 Impact of Ecosystem Water Balance on Desert Vegetation: Quantification of Historical Patterns and Projection under Climate Change Pinyon and Juniper location data, including a literature review citation list of Pinyon-Juniper systems from 1909 to 2018