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    • Snow Properties and Wildlife Tracks in Washington and Alaska

    Metadata Updated: December 6, 2023

    This dataset contains three field seasons of snow-wildlife observations conducted at 707 sites from January 2021 to March 2023 in Washington and Alaska, spanning a broad range of snow conditions. Relatively fresh tracks (usually <24 h) of common large mammal predators (bobcats, coyotes, cougars, and wolves) and their ungulate prey (caribou, Dall sheep, moose, mule deer, and white-tailed deer) were investigated to determine how snow affects predator-prey interactions. The track sink depth and dimensions (width and length) of three consecutive footprints were measured from one individual. Age class was recorded for moose based either on visual confirmation of an individual creating snow tracks or based on track dimensions. The ability to differentiate age classes for smaller ungulates was more uncertain, so age classes for deer, caribou, or sheep were not specified. Animal gait was identified using a simple classification scheme. Data also include animal species, snow density, hardness, total ice, surface temperature, and vegetation type. To best capture snow hardness, surface penetrability and hand-hardness were measured throughout the snowpack. The data are provided in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date October 4, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    Study areas. The Denali study area in interior Alaska comprises mostly tundra and boreal snow. The Okanogan study area in Washington is diverse but comprised mostly montane forest. Other Okanogan snow classes are prairie and ephemeral, with some maritime on the western extremes and very limited boreal/tundra at the highest elevations. Northeast Washington contains montane forest, prairie, and ephemeral snow classes. Black points show locations of sampled snow tracks in each study area.

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date October 4, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023
    Publisher ORNL_DAAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier C2772851281-ORNL_CLOUD
    Data First Published 2023-09-21
    Language en-US
    Data Last Modified 2023-09-26
    Category ABoVE, geospatial
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Metadata Catalog ID https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Citation Sullender, B.K., C.X. Cunningham, J.D. Lundquist, and L.R. Prugh. 2023. Snow Properties and Wildlife Tracks in Washington and Alaska. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2188
    Graphic Preview Description Study areas. The Denali study area in interior Alaska comprises mostly tundra and boreal snow. The Okanogan study area in Washington is diverse but comprised mostly montane forest. Other Okanogan snow classes are prairie and ephemeral, with some maritime on the western extremes and very limited boreal/tundra at the highest elevations. Northeast Washington contains montane forest, prairie, and ephemeral snow classes. Black points show locations of sampled snow tracks in each study area.
    Graphic Preview File https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA_Fig1.jpg
    Harvest Object Id 3a432c41-ef20-449c-b9fe-182045775f3f
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2188
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial -150.01 48.05 -117.17 63.97
    Program Code 026:001
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 0cbe3aae851daf156e5fa4756b423f34b72cb189df3bee8e5cd5882ab0505fba
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2021-01-09T00:00:00Z/2023-03-13T23:59:59Z

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