Invasive plant cover in the Mojave Desert, 2009 - 2013 (Version 2.0, March 2021)

We assessed the impacts of co-occurring invasive plant species on fire regimes and postfire native communities in the Mojave Desert, western USA by analyzing the distribution and co-occurrence patterns of three invasive annual grasses known to alter fuel conditions and community structure: Red Brome (Bromus rubens), Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and Mediterranean grass (Schismus spp.: Schismus arabicus and Schismus barbatus), and an invasive forb, red stemmed filaree (Erodium cicutarium) which can dominate postfire sites. We developed species distribution models (SDMs) for each of the four taxa and analyzed field plot data to assess the relationship between invasives and fire frequency, years postfire, and the impacts on postfire native herbaceous diversity. The data include: (1) A shapefile of the Mojave Desert that was used as our study area boundary (MojaveEcoregion_TNS_UTM83.shp). The original shapefile was obtained from NatureServe in 2009. (2) Two Comma Separated Values (CSV) files with the geographic location (Survey Plot Information.csv) and abundance (percent cover) of the four invasive taxa (Cover Measurements.csv) throughout the Mojave Desert. (3) Four Tagged-Interchange Format (TIF) raster datasets representing the SDMs. These data support the following publication: Underwood, E.C., Klinger, R.C. and Brooks M.L., 2019, Effects of invasive plants on fire regimes and postfire vegetation diversity in an arid ecosystem, Ecology and Evolution, 00:1-15. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5650