Cross-scale analysis reveals interacting predictors of annual and perennial cover in Northern Great Basin rangelands

Exotic annual grass invasion is a widespread threat to the integrity of sagebrush ecosystems in Western North America. Although many predictors of annual grass prevalence and native perennial vegetation have been identified, there remains substantial uncertainty about how regional-scale and local-scale predictors interact to determine vegetation heterogeneity, and how associations between vegetation and cattle grazing vary with environmental context. Here, we conducted a regionally extensive, one-season field survey across burned and unburned, grazed, public lands in Oregon and Idaho, with plots stratified by aspect and distance to water within pastures to capture variation in environmental context and grazing intensity. We analyzed regional and local-scale patterns of annual grass, perennial grass, and shrub cover, and examined to what extent plot-level variation was contingent on pasture-level predictions of site favorability. Annual grasses were widespread at burned and unburned site..., , , # Cross-scale analysis reveals interacting predictors of annual and perennial cover in Northern Great Basin rangelands

This dataset accompanies the Ecological Applications manuscript \"Cross-scale analysis reveals interacting predictors of annual and perennial cover in Northern Great Basin rangelands.\" Data collection was led by Madelon Case and Lauren Hallett at the University of Oregon in 2021, funded by a cooperative agreement with USDA-ARS. Data were primarily collected via field surveys, with some annotated data from publicly available spatial datasets (as noted below). Contact  or with any questions.

## Description of the data and file structure

unctionalcover_plotdata.csv
This file contains fractional cover data summarized by functional group from each field plot surveyed.
Column meanings:
PlotID - unique plot identifier for each field plot
FuncGroup - functional group code (AG = annual grass, F = forb, PG = perennial grass, S = shrub, T = tree)
cover - fractional vegetation...