Vegetation data from burned and unburned sagebrush communities in eastern Washington (2016)

The dataset includes several variables sampled across burned and unburned sagebrush communities located in a ~30 square kilometer portion of the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion in eastern Washington, USA. The study area is characterized by landforms interspersed at fine-scales, representative of the channeled scabland topography of the region (Baker 2009), including: “mounds,” which are dome-like micro-topographic features, typically 1-2 m in height and ~2 m to 25 m in mean diameter, with relatively deep, well-drained loess soils; and surrounding “flats,” with rocky, thin-soils over basaltic bedrock. Unburned mounds are typically dominated by big sagebrush (A. tridentata) and flats by scabland sagebrush (A. rigida) communities. We used a stratified-random sampling design to select potential sites across the study area based on two primary strata: 1) landform-community type (i.e. big sagebrush mounds and scabland sagebrush flats); and 2) recent fire frequency, including unburned, once- (2012), twice- (2003, 2012), and thrice-burned (2003, 2007, 2012) areas. A total of 80 sites (10 sites X two landforms X four burned strata) were sampled in 2016. Vegetation sampling was conducted at each site within a 10 x 10 m plot, a size and shape deemed optimal for the small landforms. Within each plot we measured several vegetation characteristics as outlined in the Data Quality Section.