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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #421368
Research Project: Development of Enhanced Tools and Management Strategies to Support Sustainable Agricultural Systems and Water Quality

Location: Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory

Title: Great Basin ALMANAC

Author
item Schantz, Merilynn
item Williams, Amber
item Kiniry, James

Submitted to: Zenodo
Publication Type: Database / Dataset
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/23/2024
Publication Date: 5/23/2024
Citation: Schantz, M.C., Williams, A.S., Kiniry, J.R. 2024. Great Basin ALMANAC. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11263241.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11263241

Interpretive Summary: This dataset provides the model data used to write the manuscript "Simulating sagebrush-cheatgrass plant community biomass production in the Great Basin using ALMANAC" which has recently been accepted to Crop Science.

Technical Abstract: Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is a widespread species of concern throughout the western US as it dominates many low elevation rangelands and continues to spread annually. As a winter annual grass, however, cheatgrass can produce high-quality and cheap protein forage for livestock early in the growing season. Estimating biomass can lead to better management in these western US and Great Basin plant communities. The present study was designed to evaluate the accuracy of biomass simulations in Great Basin plant communities using the process-based ALMANAC (Agricultural Land Management Alternatives with Numerical Assessment Criteria) model as it simulates biomass production and competing species interactions. For this study, data were used from the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (Sage-STEP) to simulate cheatgrass, perennial grass, forb, and sagebrush biomass across three community types: native, invaded, and a co-dominated community of sagebrush, perennial grasses, cheatgrass, and forbs at six representative Great Basin sites from 2006-2018. This dataset provides the information used to write the manuscript "Simulating sagebrush-cheatgrass plant community biomass production in the Great Basin using ALMANAC" which has recently been accepted to Crop Science.