Remote Sensing Shrub/Grass National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Back-in-Time (BIT) Herbaceous Products for the Western U.S., 1985 - 2018
type: Dataset
description: The need to monitor change in sagebrush steppe is urgent due to the increasing impacts of climate change, shifting fire regimes, and management practices on ecosystem health. Remote sensing provides a cost-effective and reliable method for monitoring change through time and attributing changes to drivers. We report an automated method of mapping rangeland fractional component cover over a large portion of the Northern Great Basin, USA, from 1986 to 2016 using a dense Landsat imagery time series. 2012 was excluded from the time-series due to a lack of quality imagery. Our method improved upon the traditional change vector method by considering the legacy of change at each pixel. We evaluate cover trends stratified by climate bin and assess spatial and temporal relationships with climate variables. Finally, we statistically evaluate the minimum time density needed to accurately characterize temporal patterns and relationships with climate drivers. Over the 30-yr period, shrub cover declined and bare ground increased. While few pixels had >10% cover change, a large majority had at least some change. All fractional components had significant spatial relationships with water year precipitation (WYPRCP), maximum temperature (WYTMAX), and minimum temperature (WYTMIN) in all years. Shrub and sagebrush cover in particular respond positively to warming WYTMIN, resulting from the largest increases in WYTMIN being in the coolest and wettest areas, and respond negatively to warming WYTMAX because the largest increases in WYTMAX are in the warmest and driest areas. These data can be used to answer critical questions regarding the influence of climate change and the suitability of management practices. Component products can be downloaded from www.mrlc.gov.
issued: 2025-11-22T23:06:05.827064
modified: 20200818
spatial: Location
keyword: amerigeo
keyword: amerigeoss
keyword: annual-herbaceous
keyword: arizona
keyword: arizona-plateau
keyword: az
keyword: back-in-time
keyword: bare-ground
keyword: big-sagebrush
keyword: biota
keyword: black-hills
keyword: blue-mountains
keyword: ca
keyword: california
keyword: chihuahuan-desert
keyword: ckan
keyword: climate-change
keyword: co
keyword: colorado
keyword: colorado-plateau
keyword: columbia-plateau
keyword: environment
keyword: geo
keyword: geoscientificinformation
keyword: geoss
keyword: grand-canyon
keyword: grass
keyword: grassland-change
keyword: great-basin
keyword: gunnison
keyword: herbaceous
keyword: id
keyword: idaho
keyword: imagerybasemapsearthcover
keyword: litter
keyword: middle-rockies
keyword: montana
keyword: mt
keyword: national
keyword: nd
keyword: ne
keyword: nebraska
keyword: nevada
keyword: new-mexico
keyword: nm
keyword: north-america
keyword: north-dakota
keyword: northern-mountainous
keyword: nv
keyword: or
keyword: oregon
keyword: rangeland
keyword: rangeland-management
keyword: rocky-mountains
keyword: sagebrush
keyword: sd
keyword: shrub
keyword: shrubland
keyword: shrubland-change
keyword: shrubland-ecosystems
keyword: shrublands
keyword: sonoran-desert
keyword: south-dakota
keyword: southwest-tablelands
keyword: terrestrial-ecosystems
keyword: texas
keyword: three-forks
keyword: time-series
keyword: trends
keyword: tx
keyword: united-states
keyword: usgs-5ed816c182ce7e579c67003f
keyword: ut
keyword: utah
keyword: vegetation

Original Metadata
type: Distribution
description: The metadata original format
format: XML
issued: 2022-07-28T20:01:27.050396
modified: 2025-11-22T23:06:05.787291
access URL: https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.5ed816c182ce7e579c67003f.xml
media type: text/xml

Digital Data
type: Distribution
description: Landing page for access to the data
format: XML
issued: 2022-07-28T20:01:27.050408
modified: 2025-11-22T23:06:05.787740
access URL: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9C9O66W
media type: application/http

US Migrating
type: Agent

Organization
fn: U.S. Geological Survey