Greater Northern Sagebrush Vulnerability Map
This single-band float32 GeoTIFF raster represents a spatially smoothed vulnerability
index for sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems at the northern extent of the sagebrush
biome, spanning the US–Canada border region from north-central Montana into
southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, with smaller portions of Wyoming,
North Dakota, and South Dakota (approximately 46.0°N to 51.1°N latitude, 102.0°W to
113.3°W longitude). The area falls primarily within the Northwestern Glaciated Plains
and Northwestern Great Plains ecoregions (EPA Level III / CEC ecoregion classification),
with its western edge reaching the Rocky Mountain Front and Canadian Rockies foothills.
This region is the northernmost range of the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus
urophasianus), centered on the Milk River and Frenchman River basins, and is sometimes
referred to informally as the greater northern sagebrush biome. Vulnerability values
are continuous and range from 1 (lowest vulnerability) to 8 (highest vulnerability),
reflecting a composite assessment of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of
sagebrush ecosystems to stressors including climate change, invasive species (e.g.,
cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum), wildfire, and land conversion. A focal mean filter with
a window size of 10 pixels was applied to the source vulnerability raster. At the
native 100 m (nominal, projected-CRS) cell resolution, this window corresponds to a
nominal 1,000 m ground footprint — see Positional Accuracy below for a caveat on true
ground distance under this projection. This smoothing reduces local pixel-level noise
and emphasizes landscape-scale vulnerability patterns. The raster is projected in
WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator (EPSG:3857) — selected for compatibility with ArcGIS Online
publishing — with a datum of WGS84 (not NAD83). Cells with no data are assigned IEEE 754
NaN (float32).
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Complete Metadata
| accessLevel | public |
|---|---|
| bureauCode |
[ "010:12" ] |
| contactPoint |
{ "fn": "Marc Pons", "@type": "vcard:Contact", "hasEmail": "mailto:info@ceg.group" } |
| description | This single-band float32 GeoTIFF raster represents a spatially smoothed vulnerability index for sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems at the northern extent of the sagebrush biome, spanning the US–Canada border region from north-central Montana into southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, with smaller portions of Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota (approximately 46.0°N to 51.1°N latitude, 102.0°W to 113.3°W longitude). The area falls primarily within the Northwestern Glaciated Plains and Northwestern Great Plains ecoregions (EPA Level III / CEC ecoregion classification), with its western edge reaching the Rocky Mountain Front and Canadian Rockies foothills. This region is the northernmost range of the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), centered on the Milk River and Frenchman River basins, and is sometimes referred to informally as the greater northern sagebrush biome. Vulnerability values are continuous and range from 1 (lowest vulnerability) to 8 (highest vulnerability), reflecting a composite assessment of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of sagebrush ecosystems to stressors including climate change, invasive species (e.g., cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum), wildfire, and land conversion. A focal mean filter with a window size of 10 pixels was applied to the source vulnerability raster. At the native 100 m (nominal, projected-CRS) cell resolution, this window corresponds to a nominal 1,000 m ground footprint — see Positional Accuracy below for a caveat on true ground distance under this projection. This smoothing reduces local pixel-level noise and emphasizes landscape-scale vulnerability patterns. The raster is projected in WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator (EPSG:3857) — selected for compatibility with ArcGIS Online publishing — with a datum of WGS84 (not NAD83). Cells with no data are assigned IEEE 754 NaN (float32). |
| distribution |
[ { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Digital Data", "format": "XML", "accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.5066/P14KPFAL", "mediaType": "application/http", "description": "Landing page for access to the data" }, { "@type": "dcat:Distribution", "title": "Original Metadata", "format": "XML", "mediaType": "text/xml", "description": "The metadata original format", "downloadURL": "https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog/metadata/USGS.6a3ece3e1ba49b7c2e2634db.xml" } ] |
| identifier | http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_6a3ece3e1ba49b7c2e2634db |
| keyword |
[ "Alberta", "Artemisia", "EPSG:3857", "GeoTIFF", "Greater Sage-Grouse", "Montana", "North Dakota", "Northern Great Plains", "Northern Rocky Mountains", "Northwestern Glaciated Plains", "Northwestern Great Plains", "Saskatchewan", "South Dakota", "USGS:6a3ece3e1ba49b7c2e2634db", "WGS84", "Wyoming", "biota", "cheatgrass", "climate change", "conservation planning", "environment", "focal mean smoothing", "geoscientificInformation", "invasive species", "raster", "sagebrush", "sagebrush steppe", "shrubland", "vulnerability index", "wildfire" ] |
| modified | 2026-08-17T00:00:00Z |
| publisher |
{ "name": "U.S. Geological Survey", "@type": "org:Organization" } |
| spatial | -113.3097, 45.9977, -101.9756, 51.1180 |
| theme |
[ "geospatial" ] |
| title | Greater Northern Sagebrush Vulnerability Map |
