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Fractional Estimates of Multiple Exotic Annual Grass (EAG) Species in the Sagebrush Biome, USA, 2016 - 2024 (ver. 5.0, July 2025)

This dataset release provides historical (2016 - 2024) estimates of fractional cover for Exotic Annual Grass (EAG) species and a native perennial bunch grass in the western United States. The dataset includes five fractional cover maps per year, accompanied by five corresponding confidence maps, for a group of 15 species of EAGs. The following 15 species are included in the overall EAG cover estimate (species followed by * indicate specific maps for that species); field brome* (Bromus arvensis), medusahead* (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), cheatgrass* (Bromus tectorum), rattlesnake brome (Bromus briziformis), rescuegrass (Bromus catharticus), Bald brome (Bromus commutatus and Bromus racemosus), ripgut brome (Bromus diandrus), soft brome (Bromus hordeaceus and Bromus hordeaceus spp. hordeaceus), Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus), compact brome (Bromus madritensis and Bromus madritensis ssp. Rubens), red brome (Bromus rubens), rye brome (Bromus secalinus). Sandberg blue grass (Poa secunda) is not considered an EAG by this project or included in the EAG layer. We map Poa secunda separately as it can have similar phenology to many invasive grasses such as cheatgrass. The data were generated using a combination of field observations from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) plots; remotely sensed data from the Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) product (specifically Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) , and various environmental, vegetation, remotely sensed, and geophysical drivers. Additionally, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques were employed in the data generation process. For 2024 maps we used a 40,154 AIM plots from 2016-2024. Pixels over 2350-m in elevation or classified as other than grassland/herbaceous or shrub (likely rangelands) were masked based on the 2023 National Land Cover Database (NLCD).

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Author(s) Devendra Dahal orcid, Stephen Boyte orcid, Neal J Pastick orcid, Logan J Megard orcid, Kory Postma
Publication Date 2021-12-20
Beginning Date of Data 2016
Ending Date of Data 2024
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P9GC5JVG
Citation Dahal, D., Boyte, S., Pastick, N.J., Megard, L.J., and Postma, K., 2021, Fractional Estimates of Multiple Exotic Annual Grass (EAG) Species in the Sagebrush Biome, USA, 2016 - 2024 (ver. 5.0, July 2025): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9GC5JVG.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2025-07-16
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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2025-09-27T05:01:22.018Z