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Nathan D Van Schmidt, Ph.D. (Former Employee)

Science and Products

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photo of two male greater sage-grouse

Simulating the influence of sagebrush restoration on post-fire sage-grouse population recovery

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. Transplanting sagebrush ( Artemisia species) is a possible strategy for revegetating burned areas, but little is known about sage-grouse or other wildlife responses to restoration strategies.
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire Science
link

Simulating the influence of sagebrush restoration on post-fire sage-grouse population recovery

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. Transplanting sagebrush ( Artemisia species) is a possible strategy for revegetating burned areas, but little is known about sage-grouse or other wildlife responses to restoration strategies.
Learn More
link
Cheatgrass on a frosty morning

Invasive Annual Grass (IAG) Spatial Dataset Compilation and Synthesis

USGS is working closely with partners in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IMJV) to collect and summarize spatial datasets that describe measurable aspects of invasive annual grasses (e.g., biomass or presence) across the western United Stated and beyond. The products developed through this project provide...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center
link

Invasive Annual Grass (IAG) Spatial Dataset Compilation and Synthesis

USGS is working closely with partners in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IMJV) to collect and summarize spatial datasets that describe measurable aspects of invasive annual grasses (e.g., biomass or presence) across the western United Stated and beyond. The products developed through this project provide...
Learn More
link
sky with double rainbow above a plateau and field of sagebrush

Field of Sagebrush Dreams: Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush in Burned Landscapes

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. The products and information developed for this project will help restoration practitioners, biologists, and land managers evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches as well as their ability...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire Science
link

Field of Sagebrush Dreams: Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush in Burned Landscapes

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. The products and information developed for this project will help restoration practitioners, biologists, and land managers evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches as well as their ability...
Learn More

Maps of habitat suitability improvement potential for the Gunnison Sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus) satellite populations in Southwestern Colorado

Habitat restoration efforts to conserve wildlife species are often conducted along a range of local site conditions, with limited information available to gauge relative outcomes for habitat suitability among sites and identify those that may lead to the greatest returns on restoration investment. We leveraged existing resource selection function models to generate heatmaps of spatially varying ha
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Maps of multiple future threats and stable areas for Gunnison sage-grouse habitats across three scenarios (2016-2070)

This dataset contains a series of maps of projected threats and current state of habitats for the threatened Gunnison sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus). The maps are 30-m spatially explicit projections of current habitats (2016) and future landscape change (by 2070) for the full range of the species’ seven extant populations, which cover diverse ecoregions of the imperiled sagebrush biome of the
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Bibliography of hydrological and ecological research in the Great Basin terminal lakes, USA

This database contains literature citations and associated abstracts pertaining to the ecology and hydrology of terminal lakes in the Great Basin region of the western United States. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, nor did we perform a systematic meta-analysis; rather, literature records were included based on topical relevance.
By
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Saline Lake Ecosystems Integrated Water Availability Assessment

Agricultural, domestic, and ecological vulnerability of California's Central Coast to projected changes in land-use, water sustainability, and climate by 2061 under five scenarios

This data release provides 270-m resolution maps of hotspots of vulnerability to projected changes in land-use, water shortages, and climate from 2001-2061 for agricultural, domestic, and ecological communities in the Central Coast of California, USA, under five management scenarios. This data covers the counties of Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties, but
By
Western Geographic Science Center

U.S. range-wide spatial prediction layers of lek persistence probabilities for greater sage-grouse

This dataset contains two predictive lek (breeding site) persistence raster layers covering the U.S. greater sage-grouse distribution. In the United States, locations where males display and breed with females (i.e., leks) are often monitored annually by state wildlife agencies, providing valuable information on the persistence of birds in the surrounding areas. A U.S. range-wide lek database was
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Database of invasive annual grass spatial products for the western United States January 2010 to February 2021

Invasive annual grasses (IAGs) present a persistent challenge for the ecological management of rangelands, particularly the imperiled sagebrush biome in western North America. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), and Ventenata spp. are spreading across sagebrush rangelands and already occupy at least 200,000 kilometers squared (km sq.) of the intermountain west. T
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Will there be water? Climate change, housing needs, and future water demand in California

Climate change in California is expected to alter future water availability, impacting water supplies needed to support future housing growth and agriculture demand. In groundwater-dependent regions like California's Central Coast, new land-use related water demand and decreasing recharge is already stressing depleted groundwater basins. We developed a spatially explicit state-and-transition simul
Authors
Tamara Wilson, Paul Selmants, Ryan M Boynton, James H. Thorne, N. Van Schmidt, Timothy Thomas
By
Western Geographic Science Center

Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern

Efforts to restore habitats and conserve wildlife species face many challenges that are exacerbated by limited funding and resources. Habitat restoration actions are often conducted across a range of habitat conditions, with limited information available to predict potential outcomes among local sites and identify those that may lead to the greatest returns on investment. Using the Gunnison sage-g
Authors
Jessica E. Shyvers, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, D. Joanne Saher, Julie A. Heinrichs, Michael S. O'Donnell, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

A habitat-centered framework for wildlife climate change vulnerability assessments: Application to Gunnison sage-grouse

The persistence of threatened wildlife species depends on successful conservation and restoration of habitats, but climate change and other stressors make these tasks increasingly challenging. Applying climate change vulnerability analyses to contemporary wildlife management can be difficult because most analyses predict direct effects of future climate on wildlife species at broad geographic scal
Authors
Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, Julie A. Heinrichs, D. Joanne Saher, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Trade-offs in adapting to changes in climate, land use, and water availability in California

Changes in land use and land cover, water systems, and climate are inextricably linked, and their combined stresses have had severe impacts in many regions worldwide. Integrated adaptation planning can support adaptive capacity by helping institutions manage land and water resources at regional to local scales. Linkages between these stressors mean that planners are often faced with potential trad
Authors
N. Van Schmidt, Tamara Wilson, Lorraine E. Flint, R. Langridge
By
Western Geographic Science Center

A regionally varying habitat model to inform management for greater sage-grouse persistence across their range

Identifying habitat needs for species with large distributions is challenging because species-habitat associations may vary across scales and regions (spatial nonstationarity). Furthermore, management efforts often cross jurisdictional boundaries, complicating the development of cohesive conservation strategies among management entities. The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a rap
Authors
Gregory T. Wann, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, Bryan C. Tarbox, Megan M. McLachlan, Michael S. O'Donnell, Anthony J Titolo, Peter S. Coates, David R. Edmunds, Julie A. Heinrichs, Adrian P. Monroe, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)

Bridging the gap between spatial modeling and management of invasive annual grasses in the imperiled sagebrush biome

Invasions of native plant communities by non-native species present major challenges for ecosystem management and conservation. Invasive annual grasses such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata are pervasive and continue to expand their distributions across imperiled sagebrush-steppe communities of the western United States. These invasive grasses alter native plant communities, ecosystem func
Authors
Bryan C. Tarbox, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, D. Joanne Saher, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center

A user guide to selecting invasive annual grass spatial products for the western United States

Invasive annual grasses (IAGs)—including Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass), Taeniatherum caput-medusae (medusahead), and Ventenata dubia (ventenata) species—present significant challenges for rangeland management by altering plant communities, impacting ecosystem function, reducing forage for wildlife and livestock, and increasing fire risk. Numerous spatial data products are used to map IAGs, and unde
Authors
Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, D. Joanne Saher, Bryan C. Tarbox, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Compendium to invasive annual grass spatial products for the western United States, January 2010-February 2021

Invasive annual grasses (IAGs) degrade native plant communities, alter fire cycles, impact ecosystem processes, and threaten the persistence of some species. Therefore, controlling the spread of IAGs has become a land management priority in the western United States. A wide array of geospatial data has been developed in the last decade to help land managers combat the invasion and expansion of non
Authors
D. Joanne Saher, Jessica E. Shyvers, Bryan C. Tarbox, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Linkages between land-use change and groundwater management foster long-term resilience of water supply in California

Study RegionWe created a 270-m coupled model of land-use and groundwater conditions, LUCAS-W[ater], for California’s Central Coast. This groundwater-dependent region is undergoing a dramatic reorganization of groundwater management under California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).Study FocusUnderstanding land-use and land-cover change supports long-term sustainable water manag
Authors
N. Van Schmidt, Tamara Wilson, Ruth Langridge
By
Western Geographic Science Center

Land-use change and future water demand in California’s central coast

Understanding future land-use related water demand is important for planners and resource managers in identifying potential shortages and crafting mitigation strategies. This is especially the case for regions dependent on limited local groundwater supplies. For the groundwater dependent Central Coast of California, we developed two scenarios of future land use and water demand based on sampling f
Authors
Tamara Wilson, N. Van Schmidt, Ruth Langridge
By
Western Geographic Science Center
Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern

Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern

Efforts to restore habitats and conserve wildlife species face many challenges that are exacerbated by limited funding and resources. Using Gunnison...

Read Article

Science and Products

link
photo of two male greater sage-grouse

Simulating the influence of sagebrush restoration on post-fire sage-grouse population recovery

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. Transplanting sagebrush ( Artemisia species) is a possible strategy for revegetating burned areas, but little is known about sage-grouse or other wildlife responses to restoration strategies.
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire Science
link

Simulating the influence of sagebrush restoration on post-fire sage-grouse population recovery

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. Transplanting sagebrush ( Artemisia species) is a possible strategy for revegetating burned areas, but little is known about sage-grouse or other wildlife responses to restoration strategies.
Learn More
link
Cheatgrass on a frosty morning

Invasive Annual Grass (IAG) Spatial Dataset Compilation and Synthesis

USGS is working closely with partners in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IMJV) to collect and summarize spatial datasets that describe measurable aspects of invasive annual grasses (e.g., biomass or presence) across the western United Stated and beyond. The products developed through this project provide...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center
link

Invasive Annual Grass (IAG) Spatial Dataset Compilation and Synthesis

USGS is working closely with partners in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IMJV) to collect and summarize spatial datasets that describe measurable aspects of invasive annual grasses (e.g., biomass or presence) across the western United Stated and beyond. The products developed through this project provide...
Learn More
link
sky with double rainbow above a plateau and field of sagebrush

Field of Sagebrush Dreams: Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush in Burned Landscapes

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. The products and information developed for this project will help restoration practitioners, biologists, and land managers evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches as well as their ability...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wildland Fire Science
link

Field of Sagebrush Dreams: Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush in Burned Landscapes

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. The products and information developed for this project will help restoration practitioners, biologists, and land managers evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches as well as their ability...
Learn More

Maps of habitat suitability improvement potential for the Gunnison Sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus) satellite populations in Southwestern Colorado

Habitat restoration efforts to conserve wildlife species are often conducted along a range of local site conditions, with limited information available to gauge relative outcomes for habitat suitability among sites and identify those that may lead to the greatest returns on restoration investment. We leveraged existing resource selection function models to generate heatmaps of spatially varying ha
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Maps of multiple future threats and stable areas for Gunnison sage-grouse habitats across three scenarios (2016-2070)

This dataset contains a series of maps of projected threats and current state of habitats for the threatened Gunnison sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus). The maps are 30-m spatially explicit projections of current habitats (2016) and future landscape change (by 2070) for the full range of the species’ seven extant populations, which cover diverse ecoregions of the imperiled sagebrush biome of the
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Bibliography of hydrological and ecological research in the Great Basin terminal lakes, USA

This database contains literature citations and associated abstracts pertaining to the ecology and hydrology of terminal lakes in the Great Basin region of the western United States. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, nor did we perform a systematic meta-analysis; rather, literature records were included based on topical relevance.
By
Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Saline Lake Ecosystems Integrated Water Availability Assessment

Agricultural, domestic, and ecological vulnerability of California's Central Coast to projected changes in land-use, water sustainability, and climate by 2061 under five scenarios

This data release provides 270-m resolution maps of hotspots of vulnerability to projected changes in land-use, water shortages, and climate from 2001-2061 for agricultural, domestic, and ecological communities in the Central Coast of California, USA, under five management scenarios. This data covers the counties of Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties, but
By
Western Geographic Science Center

U.S. range-wide spatial prediction layers of lek persistence probabilities for greater sage-grouse

This dataset contains two predictive lek (breeding site) persistence raster layers covering the U.S. greater sage-grouse distribution. In the United States, locations where males display and breed with females (i.e., leks) are often monitored annually by state wildlife agencies, providing valuable information on the persistence of birds in the surrounding areas. A U.S. range-wide lek database was
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Database of invasive annual grass spatial products for the western United States January 2010 to February 2021

Invasive annual grasses (IAGs) present a persistent challenge for the ecological management of rangelands, particularly the imperiled sagebrush biome in western North America. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), and Ventenata spp. are spreading across sagebrush rangelands and already occupy at least 200,000 kilometers squared (km sq.) of the intermountain west. T
By
Fort Collins Science Center

Will there be water? Climate change, housing needs, and future water demand in California

Climate change in California is expected to alter future water availability, impacting water supplies needed to support future housing growth and agriculture demand. In groundwater-dependent regions like California's Central Coast, new land-use related water demand and decreasing recharge is already stressing depleted groundwater basins. We developed a spatially explicit state-and-transition simul
Authors
Tamara Wilson, Paul Selmants, Ryan M Boynton, James H. Thorne, N. Van Schmidt, Timothy Thomas
By
Western Geographic Science Center

Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern

Efforts to restore habitats and conserve wildlife species face many challenges that are exacerbated by limited funding and resources. Habitat restoration actions are often conducted across a range of habitat conditions, with limited information available to predict potential outcomes among local sites and identify those that may lead to the greatest returns on investment. Using the Gunnison sage-g
Authors
Jessica E. Shyvers, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, D. Joanne Saher, Julie A. Heinrichs, Michael S. O'Donnell, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

A habitat-centered framework for wildlife climate change vulnerability assessments: Application to Gunnison sage-grouse

The persistence of threatened wildlife species depends on successful conservation and restoration of habitats, but climate change and other stressors make these tasks increasingly challenging. Applying climate change vulnerability analyses to contemporary wildlife management can be difficult because most analyses predict direct effects of future climate on wildlife species at broad geographic scal
Authors
Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, Julie A. Heinrichs, D. Joanne Saher, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Trade-offs in adapting to changes in climate, land use, and water availability in California

Changes in land use and land cover, water systems, and climate are inextricably linked, and their combined stresses have had severe impacts in many regions worldwide. Integrated adaptation planning can support adaptive capacity by helping institutions manage land and water resources at regional to local scales. Linkages between these stressors mean that planners are often faced with potential trad
Authors
N. Van Schmidt, Tamara Wilson, Lorraine E. Flint, R. Langridge
By
Western Geographic Science Center

A regionally varying habitat model to inform management for greater sage-grouse persistence across their range

Identifying habitat needs for species with large distributions is challenging because species-habitat associations may vary across scales and regions (spatial nonstationarity). Furthermore, management efforts often cross jurisdictional boundaries, complicating the development of cohesive conservation strategies among management entities. The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a rap
Authors
Gregory T. Wann, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, Bryan C. Tarbox, Megan M. McLachlan, Michael S. O'Donnell, Anthony J Titolo, Peter S. Coates, David R. Edmunds, Julie A. Heinrichs, Adrian P. Monroe, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)

Bridging the gap between spatial modeling and management of invasive annual grasses in the imperiled sagebrush biome

Invasions of native plant communities by non-native species present major challenges for ecosystem management and conservation. Invasive annual grasses such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata are pervasive and continue to expand their distributions across imperiled sagebrush-steppe communities of the western United States. These invasive grasses alter native plant communities, ecosystem func
Authors
Bryan C. Tarbox, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, D. Joanne Saher, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center

A user guide to selecting invasive annual grass spatial products for the western United States

Invasive annual grasses (IAGs)—including Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass), Taeniatherum caput-medusae (medusahead), and Ventenata dubia (ventenata) species—present significant challenges for rangeland management by altering plant communities, impacting ecosystem function, reducing forage for wildlife and livestock, and increasing fire risk. Numerous spatial data products are used to map IAGs, and unde
Authors
Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Jessica E. Shyvers, D. Joanne Saher, Bryan C. Tarbox, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Compendium to invasive annual grass spatial products for the western United States, January 2010-February 2021

Invasive annual grasses (IAGs) degrade native plant communities, alter fire cycles, impact ecosystem processes, and threaten the persistence of some species. Therefore, controlling the spread of IAGs has become a land management priority in the western United States. A wide array of geospatial data has been developed in the last decade to help land managers combat the invasion and expansion of non
Authors
D. Joanne Saher, Jessica E. Shyvers, Bryan C. Tarbox, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Julie A. Heinrichs, Cameron L. Aldridge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Linkages between land-use change and groundwater management foster long-term resilience of water supply in California

Study RegionWe created a 270-m coupled model of land-use and groundwater conditions, LUCAS-W[ater], for California’s Central Coast. This groundwater-dependent region is undergoing a dramatic reorganization of groundwater management under California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).Study FocusUnderstanding land-use and land-cover change supports long-term sustainable water manag
Authors
N. Van Schmidt, Tamara Wilson, Ruth Langridge
By
Western Geographic Science Center

Land-use change and future water demand in California’s central coast

Understanding future land-use related water demand is important for planners and resource managers in identifying potential shortages and crafting mitigation strategies. This is especially the case for regions dependent on limited local groundwater supplies. For the groundwater dependent Central Coast of California, we developed two scenarios of future land use and water demand based on sampling f
Authors
Tamara Wilson, N. Van Schmidt, Ruth Langridge
By
Western Geographic Science Center
Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern

Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern

Efforts to restore habitats and conserve wildlife species face many challenges that are exacerbated by limited funding and resources. Using Gunnison...

Read Article
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