Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

CDRRC growing season aridity and grazing season vegetation biomass data

Metadata Updated: April 21, 2025

Growing season aridity and livestock grazing seasonality can influence biomass production of perennial grasses in dryland systems. For this study, we used a long-term dataset (1967-2004) to investigate the independent and joint effects of growing season aridity (De Martonne aridity index calculated for the months of June through September) and grazing season (yearlong continuous, fall, winter/spring, or summer season grazing) on the mean annual biomass (kg per hectare) of the perennial grasses Bouteloua eriopoda (black grama), Aristida spp. (threeawn), and Sporobolus spp. (dropseed) in a southwestern United States Chihuahuan Desert rangeland system. Biomass data were collected from 78 permanent sampling transects that were within one mile (1609.34 m) distance to water. Over the 37-year study period, total perennial grass biomass decreased as growing season aridity increased, but the extent of this relationship depended upon season of grazing and specific grass taxon. Aridity-related decreases in total perennial grass biomass were most severe in the summer and fall summer seasonal grazing pastures, primarily due to inherently low black grama levels. Our findings indicate that over time, summer and fall grazing can potentially exacerbate the negative effects of increasing aridity on perennial grass biomass.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons Attribution

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date June 29, 2024
Metadata Updated Date April 21, 2025
Data Update Frequency irregular

Metadata Source

Harvested from USDA JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 29, 2024
Metadata Updated Date April 21, 2025
Publisher Agricultural Research Service
Maintainer
Identifier 10.6073/pasta/33d452d96e56e217e63e6aa8781a1763
Data Last Modified 2024-08-30
Public Access Level public
Data Update Frequency irregular
Bureau Code 005:18
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 71c088f9-72e5-48e6-84d9-3fe4ca00a0c3
Harvest Source Id d3fafa34-0cb9-48f1-ab1d-5b5fdc783806
Harvest Source Title USDA JSON
License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -106.948281, 32.606261, -106.948281, 32.555648, -106.870716, 32.555648, -106.870716, 32.606261, -106.948281, 32.606261}
Program Code 005:040
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash bb0bed85982dcfa78f7262493ac4527aa3052dabb9a35dc5f4d80ddd00bb5f4e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -106.948281, 32.606261, -106.948281, 32.555648, -106.870716, 32.555648, -106.870716, 32.606261, -106.948281, 32.606261}
Temporal 1967-09-01/2004-11-30

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.