Data at Risk Team Releases Historic Vegetation Data from the Mojave Desert

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Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

The USGS Data at Risk (DaR) project recently released ‘Central Mojave Desert Vegetation Mapping Project, California, 1997-1999’. The Data at Risk team, funded by the Community for Data Integration with support from the Fort Collins Science Center and the Great Lakes Science Center, worked with research ecologist Kathryn Thomas of the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center to recover, document and publish her data in a digitally accessible format. The preserved dataset includes vegetative measurements and repeat photographs taken in the field between 1997 and 1999 and accompanying shapefiles that map the locations of the observations and provide vegetation classifications for the studied area. The data were originally collected as part of an effort through the Desert Managers Group to characterize the vegetation distribution throughout the Central Mojave Desert. These extensive data, now preserved in open-source formats, can today be used to contextualize the long-term changes in this ecosystem. The data can be accessed on ScienceBase.