Vegetation structure and composition in the Shoshone Mountains and Toiyabe, Toquima, and Monitor ranges, Nevada

These data document vegetation structure and composition of trees and shrubs 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 at locations where breeding birds were detected annually from 2001 through 2012, inclusive, or at the ends of 100-meter transects along which we searched for Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) scats from 2010 through 2012 (inclusive). Vegetation at most points was measured once. Vegetation at points treated with prescribed fire, prescribed wildfire, or at points intended to serve as controls for the fire treatments, was measured in multiple years.
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 [2015a]). 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 [2015b]). In most cases, vegetation was sampled at multiple locations within each segment included in the butterfly data, and the data products can be linked via spatial data attributes. Original metadata date was 06/19/2013. Minor metadata updates on 11/14/2013. Minor metadata updates on 12/12/2016. **NOTE: In April 2015 a second edition of these data became available (Fleishman [2015c]) and we recommend use of this newer edtion. This second edition of the data adds 2 more years of data; in some cases, discriminates more finely among closely related species; and better documents multi-stemmed species such as willows. For locations at which vegetation had not been measured since the mid-2000s, the second edition more accurately reflects 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.