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Independent occurrence data for model assessment for woody riparian native and invasive plant species in the conterminous western USA

Metadata Updated: November 12, 2025

We developed habitat suitability models for occurrence of three invasive riparian woody plant taxa of concern to Department of Interior land management agencies, as well as for three dominant native riparian woody taxa. Study taxa were non-native tamarisk (saltcedar; Tamarix ramosissima, Tamarix chinensis), Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) and Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) and native plains/Fremont cottonwood (Populus deltoides ssp. monilifera and ssp. wislizenii, Populus fremontii), narrowleaf cottonwood (Populus angustifolia), and black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa and ssp. balsamifera). We generally followed the modeling workflow developed in Young et al. 2020. We developed models using five algorithms with VisTrails: Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling [SAHM 2.1.2]. We accounted for uncertainty related to sampling bias by using two alternative sources of background samples: random (10,000 spatially-filtered (50-kilometer [km]) random background samples) and Salix (10,000 randomly-selected occurrence records of Salix spp.). We constructed model ensembles with the 5 models for each taxon (five algorithms) with each background method, as well as with all 10 models for each taxon (five algorithms by two background methods), for three different occurrence likelihood thresholds (1st percentile, 10th percentile, and MSS (maximum sensitivity and specificity)). We also used the model ensembles to identify major watersheds where each taxon was under-represented in occurrence records relative to predicted habitat suitability, to evaluate risk of undetected or future invasion. For each 6-digit hydrological unit (HUC6, USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset) within the study area, we calculated the difference between actual occurrence record density and the density of occurrence records that would be expected if occurrence records were distributed among watersheds in proportion to habitat suitability in MaxSS 10-model ensembles. This data bundle contains the merged data sets used to create the models, occurrence locations that were used for independent assessments of model accuracy (not used in model training), the raster files associated with each taxon, and tabular summaries of actual and expected occurrence record densities by HUC6. The spatial data are organized in a separate folder for each taxon, each containing 9 rasters. Each of the rasters represent the following: 1) X1st_random - ensemble of 5 models with random background data and 1st percentile threshold 2) X10th_random - ensemble of 5 models with random background data and 10th percentile threshold 3) MaxSS_random - ensemble of 5 models with random background data and MaxSS threshold 4) X1st_Salix_1st - ensemble of 5 models with random background data and 1st percentile threshold 5) X10th_Salix - ensemble of 5 models with random background data and 10th percentile threshold 6) MaxSS_Salix - ensemble of 5 models with random background data and MaxSS threshold 7) X1st_combined - ensemble of 10 models with random and Salix background data and 1st percentile threshold 8) X10th_combined - ensemble of 10 models with random and Salix background data and 10th percentile threshold 9) MaxSS_combined - ensemble of 10 models with random and Salix background data and MaxSS threshold The bundle documentation files are: 1) 'RiparianSDMs_main.xml' (this file), which contains the project-level metadata 2) 'ModelTrainingData.csv' contains the merged data set used to create the models, including location and environmental data. 3) 'IndependentAssessmentData.csv' contains the data set used to assess accuracy of model predictions (occurrence locations not used for model training) 4) XX.tif where XX is the raster type explained above in taxa subfolders. 5) 'HUC6Summaries.csv' contains tabular summaries of actual and expected occurrence record densities by HUC6. 6) 'bison_citations.txt' contains the different data sources with occurrences from the BISON database. This file specifically describes the IndependentAssessmentData.csv that includes the data used to assess the accuracy of the model predictions.

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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 12, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 12, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-62b21da3d34e74f0d80f17b8
Data Last Modified 2022-09-26T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-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
Harvest Object Id 99c3a3bf-f650-4c5b-90db-79c94735a9dc
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -124.9400, 31.1700, -100.0000, 49.0000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash a84ec9a0e216dbc6e006c2c38d559c967a7b7a3411f0748588cf7c8b31990fba
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -124.9400, 31.1700, -124.9400, 49.0000, -100.0000, 49.0000, -100.0000, 31.1700, -124.9400, 31.1700}

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