Bioclimatic suitability for 11 dominant Colorado Plateau perennial grass species (ver. 2.0, November 2022)

These data were compiled to represent the distribution of environmental conditions with recognized importance to perennial grasses in dryland areas of the western U.S. Objective(s) of our study were to … evaluate how those environmental drivers are related to perennial grass distributions and use the results to assess how perennial grass distributions may shift in response to future climate change. These data represent ecological niche models for 11 perennial grass species that are important components of grasslands on the Colorado Plateau. Data are provided as rasters (tif format) with each containing data about future change in climatic suitability for a give species, future time period, representative concentration pathway (RCP), and ensemble level. Ensemble levels are derived from 17 different climate models and include the 10th, 50th and 90% percentile among those 17 values for each species, time period, and RCP. These data were collected and analyzed in Flagstaff, AZ, and Fort Collins, CO. These data were collected/created by a collaborative research team from the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center and Colorado State University. These data can be useful to other researchers for evaluating how climate change will alter the climatic and edaphic suitability for each species throughout the 21st century.

These are data from ecological niche models for 11 perennial grass species that are important components of grasslands on the Colorado Plateau. Data are provided as rasters (tif format) with each containing data about future change in climatic suitability for a give species, future time period, representative concentration pathway (RCP), and ensemble level. Ensemble levels are derived from 17 different climate models (see publication for full details) and include the 10th, 50th and 90% percentile among those 17 values for each species, time period, and RCP.