RAP Annual Vegetation Cover and Production

Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP)

Datasets:

  • RAP Vegetation Cover
  • RAP Herbaceous Production

Description: 

  • RAP Vegetation Cover, version 3.0: This dataset consists of gridded fractional estimates of plant functional groups for rangelands in the continental United States. The estimates are produced at 30-meter spatial resolution for each year between 1984–present. The six plant functional groups are Annual Forbs and Grasses, Perennial Forbs and Grasses, Shrubs, Trees, Litter, and Bare Ground. Cover values are reported as percentages on a pixel-by-pixel basis. The estimates were produced using a temporal convolutional network using field measures of plant functional groups collected by the Natural Resources Conservation Service Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) program, the Bureau of Land Management Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program, and the National Park Service Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) alongside spatially continuous earth observations from Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI Collection 2.
  • RAP Herbaceous Production, version 3.0: This dataset consists of gridded estimates of herbaceous aboveground biomass, partitioned into vegetation types for annual forbs and grasses and perennial forbs and grasses. The estimates are produced at 30m spatial resolution from 1986-present and are provided annually and at 16-day intervals (available through ClimateEngine, as described here). Values are provided, initially, in terms of net primary productivity which are converted to pounds per acre of new growth of aboveground biomass. Estimates are calculated using a light-use efficiency model (to estimate net primary production in terms of carbon) which is then allocated to aboveground and belowground pools (based on mean annual temperature) and further converted to biomass using a carbon-to-dry matter ratio.

Organization: Maintained and produced by USDA Agricultural Research Service; initially developed by University of Montana, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group

Website: RAP Website

Google Earth Engine Catalog: 

  • Vegetation cover: projects/rap-data-365417/assets/vegetation-cover-v3
  • Herbaceous production (net primary production): projects/rap-data-365417/assets/npp-partitioned-v3

Spatial resolution: 30-meter

Time Span: 

  • RAP Vegetation Cover: 1986 to Present (updated annually)
  • RAP Herbaceous Biomass: 1986 to Present (updated annually)

Variables:

  • RAP Vegetation Cover
      • Perennial forbs and grasses
      • Annual forbs and grasses
      • Shrubs
      • Trees
      • Bare ground
      • Litter
  • RAP Aboveground Production
      • Total production (sum of perennial herbaceous and annual herbaceous production)
      • Annual herbaceous production
      • Perennial herbaceous production

Terms of Use:

  • Public Domain-CC0

References:

  • RAP Vegetation Cover
    • Allred, B.W., B.T. Bestelmeyer, C.S. Boyd, C. Brown, K.W. Davies, M.C. Duniway, L.M. Ellsworth, T.A. Erickson, S.D. Fuhlendorf, S.D., T.V. Griffiths, V. Jansen, M.O. Jones, J. Karl, A. Knight, J.D. Maestas, J.J. Maynard, S.E. McCord, D.E. Naugle, H.D. Starns, D. Twidwell, and D.R. Uden. Improving Landsat predictions of rangeland fractional cover with multitask learning and uncertainty. Methods in Ecology and Evolution https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13564
  • RAP Herbaceous Production
    • Jones, M.O., N.P. Robinson, D.E. Naugle, J.D. Maestas, M.C. Reeves, R.W. Lankston, and B.W. Allred. Annual and 16-day rangeland production estimates for the western United States. Rangeland Ecology and Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2021.04.003
    • Robinson, N. P., M. O. Jones, A. Moreno, T. A. Erickson, D. E. Naugle, and B. W.Allred. 2019. Rangeland productivity partitioned to sub-pixel plant functional types. Remote Sensing 11:1427. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs11121427

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