Invasive Plant Cover in the Mojave Desert, 2009 - 2013 (ver. 2.0, April 2021)

We assessed the impacts of co-occurring invasive plant species on fire regimes and postfire native communities in the Mojave Desert, western USA by analyzing the distribution and co-occurrence patterns of three invasive annual grasses known to alter fuel conditions and community structure: Red Brome (Bromus rubens), Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and Mediterranean grass (Schismus spp.: Schismus arabicus and Schismus barbatus), and an invasive forb, red stemmed filaree (Erodium cicutarium) which can dominate postfire sites. We developed species distribution models (SDMs) for each of the four taxa and analyzed field plot data to assess the relationship between invasives and fire frequency, years postfire, and the impacts...

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Mojave desert, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), biota, co-occurance invasives, desert ecosystems, All tags... ecosystems, field methods, fire disturbance, fire frequency, fires, geographic information systems, habitat alteration, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, vegetation, Fewer tags

Niches of three sympatric montane ground-dwelling squirrels: Relative importance of climate, topography, and landcover

Species with different ecological niches will likely exhibit distinct responses to a changing environment. Differences in the magnitude of niche specialization may also indicate which species may be more vulnerable to environmental change, as many life-history characteristics are known to affect climate change vulnerability. We characterized the niche space of three sympatric high-elevation ground-dwelling squirrels, yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventer), Belding's ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), and golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis), in the alpine and upper subalpine regions of the Sierra Nevada in California. We used 5879 observations of individual squirrels, collected...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation

How will Mammals in the Alpine Zone of the Sierra Nevada Mountains Respond to Future Climate?

Our study addresses the general question of the degree to which wildlife species can adapt to, or possibly even modify, effects from climate change. We focused on five species of mammals in the alpine zone of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, including the federally endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and the American pika, a species recently proposed for listing due to the loss of populations from altered climatic conditions. It was expected that there will be an upward expansion of trees and shrubs from lower elevations and that many or even most alpine meadows will be converted to woody dominated communities. Meadows provide critical habitat for many alpine mammal species, and their conversion could represent...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2009, CASC, Completed, Mammals, Mammals, All tags... National CASC, National CASC, Projects by Region, Sierra Nevada, Wildlife and Plants, Wildlife and Plants, bighorn sheep, pika, Fewer tags

Waterfowl Disturbance in California and Nevada (2018)

Long-term environmental management to prevent waterfowl population declines is informed by ecology, movement behavior and habitat use patterns. Extrinsic factors such as human-induced disturbance can cause behavioral changes which may influence movement, and resource needs, driving variation that affects management efficacy. To better understand the relationship between human-based disturbance and animal movement and habitat use, and their potential effects on management, we GPS tracked 15 dabbling ducks in California over about 4-weeks before, during and after the start of a recreational hunting season in October and November 2018. We recorded locations at 2-minute intervals across three separate 24-hour tracking...

Categories: Data; Tags: California, Colusa, Ecology, Grizzly Bay, Grizzly Island, All tags... Nevada, Reno, Sacramento, Suisun Bay, Suisun Bay, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Wildlife Biology, animal behavior, biological population management, biota, habitats, reserves, telemetry, wetland ecosystems, wildlife, Fewer tags

Predictive Model of Burn Severity (dNBR) in the Mojave Desert

This raster dataset represents spatially explicit predictions of burn severity (dNBRPredict.tif) in the Mojave Desert based on models developed from data on the difference normalized burn ratio (dNBR) within perimeters of fires greater than 405 hectares that burned between 1984 to 2010. Raster resolution equals 30 meters, projection equals UTM Zone 11N.

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Grass-fire cycle, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, Predictive models, Random forests, All tags... biota, burn severity, dNBR, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fire regimes, fires, geographic information systems, heterogeneity, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, spatial models, vegetation, Fewer tags

Fire Regimes in the Mojave Desert (1972-2010)

This U.S. Geological Survey data release consists of 3 raster datasets representing estimates of probability of ignition (ProbIgnitPredict.tif), fire frequency (FrequencyPredictRF.tif), and burn severity (dNBRPredictRF.tif) in the Mojave Desert from 1984 to 2010. The data include: (1) A shapefile of the Mojave Desert that was used as our study area boundary (MojaveEcoregion_TNS_UTM83.shp). The original shapefile was obtained from NatureServe in 2009; (2) Three Tagged-Interchange Format (TIF) raster datasets representing probability of ignition, fire frequency, and burn severity. Resolution equals 30 meters, projection equals UTM Zone 11N. These data support the following publication: Klinger, R., Underwood, E.C.,...

Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Ecology, Environmental Health, Mojave Desert, Remote Sensing, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), All tags... biota, burn severity, co-occurence invasives, desert ecosystems, ecosystems, environmental gradients, field methods, fire disturbance, fire frequency, fires, geographic gradients, geographic information systems, grass-fire cycle, habitat alteration, ignition, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive plant species, invasive species, machine learning, maximum entropy, plants (organisms), random forests, remote sensing, spatial dynamics, vegetation, Fewer tags

Predictive Model of Probability of Ignition in the Mojave Desert

This raster dataset represents spatially explicit predictions of probability of ignition in the Mojave Desert based on models developed from data on perimeters of fires greater than 405 hectares that burned between 1972 to 2010. Raster resolution equals 30 meters, projection equals UTM Zone 11N.

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Grass-fire cycle, Maxent, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, Predictive models, All tags... biota, burn severity, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fire regimes, fires, geographic information systems, heterogeneity, igntion probability, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, spatial models, vegetation, Fewer tags

Species distribution model of the invasive annual forb Erodium cicutarium (red-stemmed filaree) in the Mojave Desert

Geotiff raster of habitat suitability for the invasive annual forb Erodium cicutarium (red-stemmed filaree) across the Mojave Desert (NatureServe ecoregional boundary). Raster resolution = 30 m, projection = UTM Zone 11N

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Biological invasions, Bromus rubens, Bromus tectorum, Co-occurrence, Erodium cicutarium, All tags... Grass-fire cycle, Invasive species, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, Schismus spp, Species distribution models, biota, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fires, geographic information systems, habitat alteration, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, vegetation, Fewer tags

Cover of Woody and Herbaceous Functional Groups in Burned and Unburned Plots, Mojave Desert, 2009-2013

Arid ecosystems are often vulnerable to transformation to invasive-dominated states following fire, but data on persistence of these states are sparse. The grass/fire cycle is a feedback process between invasive annual grasses and fire frequency that often leads to the formation of alternative vegetation states dominated by the invasive grasses. However, other components of fire regimes, such as burn severity, also have the potential to produce long-term vegetation transformations. Our goal was to evaluate the influence of both fire frequency and burn severity on the transformation of woody-dominated communities to communities dominated by invasive grasses in major elevation zones of the Mojave Desert of western...

Categories: Data; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Mojave desert, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), biological invasions, chronosequence, community structure, All tags... deserts, disturbance, ecological processes, ecosystems, fire regimes, fires, habitat alteration, invasive species, plants, resilience, resistance, secondary succession, Fewer tags

Predictive Model of Fire Frequency in the Mojave Desert

This raster dataset represents spatially explicit predictions of fire frequency in the Mojave Desert based on models developed from data on perimeters of fires greater than 405 hectares that burned between 1972 through 2010. Raster resolution equals 30 meters, projection equals UTM Zone 11N.

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Grass-fire cycle, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, Predictive models, Random forests, All tags... biota, burn severity, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fire regimes, fire return interval, fires, geographic information systems, heterogeneity, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, spatial models, vegetation, Fewer tags

Species distribution model of the invasive annual grass Schismus spp (Mediterranean split grass) in the Mojave Desert

Geotiff raster of habitat suitability for the invasive annual grass Schismus spp (Mediterranean split grass) across the Mojave Desert (NatureServe ecoregional boundary). Raster resolution = 30 m, projection = UTM Zone 11N

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Biological invasions, Bromus rubens, Bromus tectorum, Co-occurrence, Erodium cicutarium, All tags... Grass-fire cycle, Invasive species, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, Schismus spp, Species distribution models, biota, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fires, geographic information systems, habitat alteration, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, vegetation, Fewer tags

Species distribution model of the invasive annual grass Bromus rubens (red brome) in the Mojave Desert

Geotiff raster of habitat suitability for the invasive annual grass Bromus rubens (red brome) across the Mojave Desert (NatureServe ecoregional boundary). Raster resolution = 30 m, projection = UTM Zone 11N

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Biological invasions, Bromus rubens, Bromus tectorum, Co-occurrence, Erodium cicutarium, All tags... Grass-fire cycle, Invasive species, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, Schismus spp, Species distribution models, biota, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fires, geographic information systems, habitat alteration, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, vegetation, Fewer tags

Species distribution model of the invasive annual grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) in the Mojave Desert

Geotiff raster of habitat suitability for the invasive annual grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) across the Mojave Desert (NatureServe ecoregional boundary). Raster resolution = 30 m, projection = UTM Zone 11N

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, Raster; Tags: Biological invasions, Bromus rubens, Bromus tectorum, Co-occurrence, Erodium cicutarium, All tags... Grass-fire cycle, Invasive species, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert, SageDAT-data, Schismus spp, Species distribution models, biota, desert ecosystems, disturbance, ecosystems, field methods, fire, fire frequency, fires, geographic information systems, habitat alteration, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive species, plants (organisms), remote sensing, vegetation, Fewer tags

Mojave Desert Ecoregion

This is a shapefile of the Mojave Desert, which was used as our study area boundary (MojaveEcoregion_TNS_UTM83.shp).

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Mojave Desert, biota, burn severity, co-occurence invasives, desert ecosystems, All tags... ecosystems, environmental gradients, field methods, fire disturbance, fire frequency, fires, geographic gradients, geographic information systems, grass-fire cycle, ignition, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, invasive plant species, invasive species, machine learning, maximum entropy, plants (organisms), random forests, remote sensing, spatial dynamics, vegetation, Fewer tags