State-and-Transition Simulation Model of Rangeland Vegetation in Southwest South Dakota (1969-2050)

This is a spatially-explicit state-and-transition simulation model of rangeland vegetation dynamics in the southwest South Dakota study site. The study site encompasses part of multiple jurisdictions, including Badlands National Park, Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It represents key vegetation types, grazing, exotic plants, fire, and the effects of climate and management on rangeland productivity and composition (i.e., distribution of ecological community phases). The model was built using the ST-Sim software platform. From http://wiki.syncrosim.com/index.php?title=Main_Page: ST-Sim allows users to develop and run spatially-explicit, stochastic state-and-transition simulation models (STSMs) of vegetation change, and is designed to simulate and compare possible vegetation conditions across a landscape over time by considering the interaction between succession, disturbances and management. ST-Sim is the latest in a 20-year lineage of STSM development tools that includes the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT), the Tool for Exploratory Landscape Scenario Analysis (TELSA), and the Path Landscape Model (Path). ST-Sim is intended as an upgrade to Path: in addition to all of the previous Path features, ST-Sim also provides a new option to run raster-based, spatially-explicit simulations.