Spatially-Explicit Predictive Maps of Greater Sage-Grouse Brood Selection Integrated with Brood Survival in Nevada and Northeastern California, USA

We used a hierarchical Bayesian modeling framework to estimate resource selection functions and survival for early and late brood-rearing stages of sage-grouse in relation to a broad suite of habitat characteristics evaluated at multiple spatial scales within the Great Basin from 2009 to 2019. Sage-grouse selected for greater perennial grass cover, higher relative elevations, and areas closer to springs and wet meadows during both early and late brood-rearing. Terrain characteristics, including heat load and aspect, were important in survival models, as was variation in shrub height. We also found strong evidence for higher survival for both early and late broods within previously burned areas, but survival within burned areas decreased as annual grass cover (i.e. cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum) increased. This interaction effect demonstrates how invasion of annual grasses into burned areas, which has become prevalent in Great Basin sagebrush ecosystems, can lead to maladaptive habitat selection by brood-rearing greater sage-grouse. Understanding these complex relationships aids wildlife conservation and habitat management as wildfire and annual grass cycles continue to accelerate across western ecosystems.

These data support the following publication:
Brussee, B.E., Coates, P.S., O'Neil, S.T., Casazza, M.L., Espinosa, S.P., Boone, J.D., Ammon, E.M., Gardner, S.C. and Delehanty, D.J., 2022. Invasion of annual grasses following wildfire corresponds to maladaptive habitat selection by a sagebrush ecosystem indicator species. Global Ecology and Conservation, 37, p.e02147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2022.e02147.