Filters: partyWithName: Ecosystems (X) > partyWithName: Southwest Biological Science Center (X)
32 results (10ms)
Filters
Date Range
Extensions Types Contacts
Categories
Tag Types
|
These data represent simulated ecological drought conditions for current climate, and for future climate represented by all available climate models at two time periods during the 21st century. These data were used to: 1) describe geographic patterns in ecological drought under historical climate conditions, 2) quantify the direction and magnitude of change in ecological drought, 3) identify areas and ecological drought metrics with projected changes that are robust across climate models, defined as drought metrics and locations where >90% of climate models agree in the direction of change.
These NetCDF data were compiled to investigate how rangelands in the western U.S. are limited by access to water. As a result, these ecosystems may be especially vulnerable to changes in water availability and drought as a result of climate change. This project utilized an ecosystem water balance model to quantify spatial and temporal patterns of rangeland ecological drought conditions under historical and future climate conditions. Water balance results were used to estimate several metrics that describe the seasonal timing and amount of moisture available for plant utilization in western rangelands. These data represent different aspects of water availability and drought. They are based on 1/16-degree gridded...
These data were compiled for a study that investigated the effects of drought seasonality and plant community composition in a dryland ecosystem. In 2015 U.S. Geological Survey ecologists recorded vegetation and soil moisture data in 36 experimental plots which manipulated precipitation in two plant community types. The experiment consisted of three precipitation treatments: control (ambient precipitation), cool-season drought (-66% ambient precipitation November-April), and warm-season drought (-66% ambient precipitation May-October), applied in two plant communities (perennial grasses with or without a large shrub, Ephedra viridis) over a three-year period. These data were collected from 2015 to 2022 near Canyonlands...
Categories: Data;
Tags: Achnatherum hymenoides,
Botany,
C3 photosynthesis,
C4 photosynthesis,
Canyonlands National Park,
These data were compiled to identify potential contributions of drought and inundation tolerance to vegetation composition along the Colorado River. Objective(s) of our study were to quantify physiological and growth responses of different plant species to drought and inundation. These data represent measurements taken on container plants in a greenhouse, and hydrological niche values based on field monitoring data that are published elsewhere. These data were collected in summer of 2022 at the Northern Arizona University Research Greenhouse Complex. These data were collected by Northern Arizona University and U.S. Geological Survey scientists in a greenhouse and laboratory setting. These data can be used to assess...
These data consist of environmental covariates and estimated plot-level mortality of ponderosa pine trees. Environmental covariates include growing season temperature and soil moisture, and values are summarized into long-term mean conditions, and anomalies observed between forest inventory sampling events for each plot. Data also include plot locations (with uncertainty introduced by the US Forest Service to maintain private property rights), plot basal area, and several variables related to estimated mortality rate of ponderosa pine trees under various assumptions about basal area conditions.
These data were compiled using a new multivariate matching algorithm that transfers simulated soil moisture conditions (Bradford et al. 2020) from an original 10-km resolution to a 30-arcsec spatial resolution. Also, these data are a supplement to a previously published journal article (Bradford et al., 2020) and USGS data release (Bradford and Schlaepfer, 2020). The objectives of our study were to (1) characterize geographic patterns in ecological drought under historical climate, (2) quantify the direction and magnitude of projected responses in ecological drought under climate change, (3) identify areas and drought metrics with projected changes that are robust across climate models for a representative set of...
These data were compiled for research pertaining to the effects of stand density treatments on growth rates in semi-arid, ponderosa pine forests. Also, these data examined how the planned restoration treatments in the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI), the largest forest restoration project being implemented in the United States, would alter landscape-scale patterns of forest growth and drought vulnerability throughout the 21st century. Using drought-growth relationships developed within the landscape, we considered a suite of climate and thinning scenarios and estimated both average forest growth and the proportion of years with extremely low growth as a measure of vulnerability to long-term decline. The...
These data were compiled to assess the response of vegetation and biological soil crusts to drought in a semi-arid ecosystem on the Colorado Plateau near Moab, Utah. Objective(s) of our study were to explore how vegetation cover, soil conditions, and growing season nitrogen (N) availability are impacted by multifaceted drying climate conditions using data from a long-term precipitation reduction experiment (30% reduction). In 2010, U.S. Geological Survey biologists installed paired experimental plots with a control plot and a plot covered by a shelter that excluded 35% of incoming precipitation. These 40 sites represent shallow vs. deep soils and sandstone vs. shale parent material. These data were collected at...
These data were compiled to evaluate the magnitude and direction of change from historical conditions in climate metrics across the Southeastern Utah Group (SEUG) of National Parks. Objective(s) of our study were to quantify the magnitude and direction of change from historical conditions in climate metrics across SEUG parks at a meaningful scale for land managers and practitioners. These data represent the historical and projected future average temperatures for two emission scenarios and 12 global circulation models. Included are the annual average temperatures and the average temperatures for each season. These data were created by sampling representative locations across each National Park unit and simulating...
These data were compiled for research pertaining to the effects of stand density treatments on growth rates in semi-arid, ponderosa pine forests. Also, these data examined how the planned restoration treatments in the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI), the largest forest restoration project being implemented in the United States, would alter landscape-scale patterns of forest growth and drought vulnerability throughout the 21st century. Using drought-growth relationships developed within the landscape, we considered a suite of climate and thinning scenarios and estimated both average forest growth and the proportion of years with extremely low growth as a measure of vulnerability to long-term decline. The...
These data were compiled for a study that investigated the effects of drought seasonality and plant community composition on two dominant perennial grasses, Achnatherum hymenoides (C3 photosynthesis), and Pleuraphis jamesii (C4 photosynthesis), in a dryland ecosystem. In 2015 USGS Ecologists recorded vegetation and soil moisture data in 36 experimental plots which manipulated precipitation in two plant community types. The experiment consisted of three precipitation treatments: control (ambient precipitation), cool-season drought (-66% ambient precipitation November-April), and warm-season drought (-66% ambient precipitation May-October), applied in two plant communities (perennial grasses with or without a large...
Drylands cover 40% of the global terrestrial surface and provide important ecosystem services. While drylands as a whole are expected to increase in distribution 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 21st century, temperate drylands may contract by a third, primarily converting to subtropical drylands,...
Categories: Data,
Publication;
Types: Citation;
Tags: Eastern Asia,
North America,
South America,
Southern Africa,
USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC),
These raster and tabular data were compiled to develop time series data of the lower Colorado River (LCR) vegetation greenness, water use, and phenology since the year 2000. An objective of our study was to evaluate short and long-term effects of drought and biocontrol on LCR riparian and aquatic ecosystems south of Hoover Dam. These data represent spatially explicit average Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) derived evapotranspiration (ET) difference, and scaled normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI*) difference maps between two decades (2000 to 2010 and 2011 to 2020) and two 5 year periods (2000 to 2005 and 2016 to 2020). The time-series period statistics data provide estimates of the riparian woodland area...
These data were simulated using the SOILWAT model and were intended to characterize soil-water conditions at different ecological sites on the Southern Colorado Plateau. SOILWAT is a daily, site-specific, multi soil-layer, ecosystem water-balance model, driven by daily meteorology, as well as site soil texture and vegetation. The sites simulated correspond with Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) plots established by the National Park Service’s (NPS) Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN), which were established to capture the range of ecosystem conditions present in this network. Plant communities of the Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) are a vital sign for this region, enhancing habitat, stabilizing soils,...
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...
Categories: Data;
Tags: Arches National Park,
Botany,
Bryce Canyon National Park,
Canyonlands National Park,
Capitol Reef National Park,
These data were compiled to study the effects of severe drought and a concurrent large wildfire on a large population of southern Pacific pond turtles living in a rapidly drying lake. The study was done in collaboration with biologists from Ecorp Consulting in Santa Ana, California with funding from the Desert Tortoise Council. Data were collected in August and September of 2014. This worksheet contains the data that were used to analyze straight-line carapace length in cm and create a histogram of the size distribution and sex ratio of the population of southern Pacific pond turtles (n = 122) in Elizabeth Lake, Los Angeles County, California (Figure 4 from manuscript.) Carapace length was measured with tree calipers...
From 2011-2018 USGS biologists recorded vegetation and biological soil crust (BSC) cover by species and tracked survival of tagged individual plants (388 in total) across 40 locations where paired experimental plots had been installed in 2010. Plant cover was visually estimated using four 75 x 100 cm survey frames. Each site contained a two plots measuring 1.5 by 2.0 meteres: a control plot and a plot covered by a shelter that excluded 35% of incoming precipitation. Plots were selected to represent shallow vs. deep soils, sandstone vs. shale parent material, and dominant plant species on the Colorado Plateau around Moab, Utah. We used an information theoretic approach using generalized linear models to determine...
This dataset was constructed from readily available open source climate and vegetation data, like Landsat. This dataset represents the vegetation and climate conditions for a large number of points across the major deserts of the SW USA. The dataset was constructed in order to use the climate pivot point approach (Munson et al. 2013) at the landscape level. Originally this dataset was much larger but we were looking to study a pure vegetation signal and therefore developed a detailed masking procedure to remove fire, slope, human, and floodplain effects. The vegetation classification originally came from SW regap, though we have refined / regrouped the data. The vegetation classification for each point is representative...
These data represent simulated soil temperature and moisture conditions for current climate, and for future climate represented by all available climate models at two time periods during the 21st century. These data were used to: 1) quantify the direction and magnitude of expected changes in several measures of soil temperature and soil moisture, including the key variables used to distinguish the regimes used in the R and R categories; 2) assess how these changes will impact the geographic distribution of soil temperature and moisture regimes; and 3) explore the implications for using R and R categories for estimating future ecosystem resilience and resistance.
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...
|
![]() |