Central Valley of California landcover compatibility with Sandhill Crane habitat use from 2008 to 2023

Our dataset includes the proportional landcover within priority wintering areas for Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) in the Central Valley of California from 2008 to 2023. This can be used to examine changes in landcover within these priority areas over time as well as to compare differences among the various priority areas. Specifically, the dataset demonstrates changes in landcovers pertinent to the provisioning of Sandhill Crane habitat in the region from 2008 to 2023.

A 2-km buffer was applied to 7,187 Sandhill Crane use locations collected from 1991 to 2013 via various studies to help delineate priority wintering areas. The buffer distance reflects the average daily flight distance of Greater Sandhill Cranes from roosting to foraging sites in the region. Spatial gaps in the study area were not filled, nor were the edges of delineated priority wintering areas smoothed. Much of the data used for this project was previously described in Ivey et al. (2016).

After defining the study area, we incorporated proportional landcover data from the United States Department of Agriculture's Cropland Data Layer (CDL), which has a 30-meter resolution (USDA 2024). We then grouped existing landcover categories into those with similar taxonomy, considering Sandhill Crane habitat use preferences. Next, we merged all landcovers into two groups that categorized them as compatible (i.e., “suitable”) or incompatible (i.e., “unsuitable”) with Sandhill Crane use based on existing habitat studies and expert knowledge.

The dataset is provided as five separate comma-separated value (CSV) files: (1) foraging locations used to delineate the study area (Foraging_Locations.csv), (2) proportional landcover classified as compatible or incompatible with Sandhill Crane habitat use (Compatible_Landcover.csv), (3) relative coverage of landcover types important for Sandhill Crane habitat provisioning (Functional_Landcover.csv), (4) reclassification of CDL categories as compatible or incompatible (CDL_Reclass_Compatible.csv), and (5) reclassification of CDL categories by functional relevance to Sandhill Crane habitat (CDL_Reclass_Functional.csv). This dataset has the capacity to directly inform decisions regarding Sandhill Crane habitat conservation in the Central Valley of California. It can be analyzed in several ways, including via Mann-Kendall Trend Tests (τ).

Key Citations:
Ivey, G.L., C.P. Herziger, D.A. Hardt, and G.H. Golet. 2016. Historic and recent winter sandhill crane distribution in California. Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop 13:54-66.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2024. Cropland Data Layer. National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Marketing and Information Services Office, Washington, D.C., USA.