Data for Decadal shifts in grass and woody plant cover are driven by prolonged drying and modified by topo-edaphic properties

Woody plant encroachment and overall declines in perennial vegetation in dryland regions can alter ecosystem properties and indicate land degradation, but the causes of these shifts remain controversial. Determining how changes in the abundance and distribution of grass and woody plants are influenced by conditions that regulate water availability at a regional scale provides a baseline to which compare how management actions alter the composition of these vegetation types at a more local scale and can be used to predict future shifts under climate change. Using a remote sensing-based approach, we assessed the balance between grasses and woody plants and how climate and topo-edaphic conditions affected their abundances across the northern Sonoran Desert from 1989 to 2009. These data support the following publication: Seth M Munson, Temuulen Tsagaan Sankey, George Z Xian, Miguel L. Villarreal, and Collin G. Homer, 2016-06-25, Decadal shifts in grass and woody plant cover are driven by prolonged drying and modified by topo-edaphic properties: Ecological Applications, 10.1002/eap.1389.