Coastal wetland vegetation and elevation data characterizing a Sudden Vegetation Dieback event in San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in 2019

Climatic extremes are becoming more frequent with climate change and have the potential to cause major ecological shifts and ecosystem collapse. Along the northern Gulf of Mexico, a coastal wetland in the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in Texas suffered significant and acute vegetation dieback following Hurricane Harvey in 2017. We identified plant zonal boundaries along an elevation gradient with drought-tolerant plant species, including succulents and graminoids, at higher elevations and flood-tolerant species, including Spartina alterniflora, at lower elevations. We measured mean canopy height for each species. Soil surface elevation was measured using Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) methods.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
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identifier USGS:60be4753d34e86b93891135a
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20210922
old-spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-95.54622017, 28.84193387], [-95.54622017, 28.86874084], [ -95.50160678, 28.86874084], [ -95.50160678, 28.84193387], [-95.54622017, 28.84193387]]]}
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
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theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • biota
  • brazos-river
  • ckan
  • coastal-wetlands
  • ecological-thresholds
  • ecosystem-collapse
  • extreme-climatic-events
  • extreme-precipitation
  • geo
  • geoss
  • gulf-of-mexico
  • hurricane-harvey
  • national
  • north-america
  • precipitation-atmospheric
  • regime-shift
  • salt-marsh
  • san-bernard-national-wildlife-refuge
  • san-bernard-river
  • sudden-vegetation-dieback
  • texas
  • tropical-cyclones
  • united-states
  • usgs-60be4753d34e86b93891135a
  • wetlands
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Camille L Stagg
maintainer_email staggc@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T17:17:57.305485
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T17:17:57.305488
notes Climatic extremes are becoming more frequent with climate change and have the potential to cause major ecological shifts and ecosystem collapse. Along the northern Gulf of Mexico, a coastal wetland in the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in Texas suffered significant and acute vegetation dieback following Hurricane Harvey in 2017. We identified plant zonal boundaries along an elevation gradient with drought-tolerant plant species, including succulents and graminoids, at higher elevations and flood-tolerant species, including Spartina alterniflora, at lower elevations. We measured mean canopy height for each species. Soil surface elevation was measured using Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) methods.
num_resources 2
num_tags 27
title Coastal wetland vegetation and elevation data characterizing a Sudden Vegetation Dieback event in San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge in 2019