Ecological resilience and resistance across the sagebrush biome under ambient and projected climate conditions

These data were compiled to provide a quantitative, spatially explicit estimate of ecological resilience and resistance (R&R) under ambient and projected future climate conditions. Objective of our study was to understand where and why climate change will alter the distribution of ecological resilience and resistance in the sagebrush biome throughout the 21st century. To accomplish this, we pursued four specific objectives: we estimated the new R&R indicators under future climate conditions and quantified changes from historical conditions; we developed a continuous R&R index that integrates probability information from the underlying predictive R&R models; we assessed the robustness of projected changes in R&R to uncertainty in future climate conditions. These data represent spatially-explicit estimates of ecological resilience and resistance (R&R; categorical indicators, probabilities, continuous indices) under ambient and downscaled projected historical and future climate conditions (historical, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5 CMIP5 scenarios). These data were created in rangelands and open woodlands across the sagebrush biome in 2023. These data were created by a collaboration between Northern Arizona University and the U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center based on modeling which utilized predictive R&R models utilizing ecological and climate metrics which were based on soil properties (NRCS), ambient climate data (gridMET), and downscaled climate projections (MACAv2-METDATA). These data can be used to assess geographic patterns in resilience and resistance under ambient and projected future climate conditions.