Vegetation structure and composition in the Shoshone Mountains and Toiyabe, Toquima, and Monitor ranges, Nevada: 3rd edition

These data document vegetation structure (trees, shrubs, and ground cover), composition of trees and shrubs (in most cases, ground cover is differentiated by functional group but not by species), and presence or absence of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) in canyons throughout four mountain ranges in the central Great Basin (Lander, Nye, and Eureka counties, Nevada): the Shoshone Mountains, Toiyabe Range, Toquima Range, and Monitor Range. Vegetation data were collected between 2002 and 2013 and in 2023 or 2024 at locations where annual point-counts of breeding birds were conducted or at the ends of 100-meter transects along which we searched for Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) scats. Data on presence or absence of cheatgrass were gathered annually from 2006 through 2014. We measured vegetation structure and composition at the majority of locations in at least three years. The year in which vegetation structure and composition first was measured at a given location varied; vegetation structure and composition was remeasured at virtually all locations in 2013 and either 2023 or 2024. Vegetation structure and composition generally was measured more frequently at locations that were treated with prescribed fire or wildfire, or that served as controls for studies on responses of plants and animals to fire, than at other locations.
Data were collected to examine relations between probabilities of detection and occupancy of breeding birds and vegetation covariates. Data have also been used to train and validate models of vegetation (e.g., presence of riparian vegetation, potential changes in distribution of dominant species) that were based on remotely sensed data. Additionally, data will be used to examine responses of vegetation following fire treatments and post-fire land use.
These data serve as environmental covariates for the data publication 'Detections of breeding birds in the Shoshone, Toiyabe, Toquima, and Monitor ranges, Nevada' (Fleishman 2015, https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2011-0002.3). Vegetation data were collected at virtually all locations where birds were sampled. Spatial data attributes in the breeding-bird data publication and this data publication (range, canyon, year, UTMx, UTMy) are the same and can be linked in a relational database or lookup table. Although the data primarily were collected to characterize bird habitat, they also could serve as environmental covariates for the data publication 'Presence and absence of butterflies in the Shoshone Mountains and Toiyabe and Toquima ranges, Nevada' (Fleishman 2015, https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2011-0003.3). In most cases, vegetation was sampled at multiple locations within each segment that is included in the butterfly data, and the data products can be linked via spatial data attributes. The first edition of these data was made available in Fleishman (2013, https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0007). The second edition of the data (Fleishman 2015, https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0007-2), added 2 more years of data; in some cases, discriminated more finely among closely related species; and better documented multi-stemmed species such as willows. For locations at which vegetation had not been measured since the mid-2000s, the second edition more accurately reflected current conditions. Furthermore, virtually all measurements reflected in the second edition were made during the same year. Very minor issues with the data files in 2002-2012 files were corrected, but none that altered any actual data values. Additionally, the metadata were improved. This third edition of the data adds 2 more years of data; better recognizes uncertainty in the species-level identities of some plants identified to genus; and adds a few new taxa.