Data from: Assessing accuracy of GAP and LANDFIRE land cover datasets in winter habitats used by greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Wyoming, USA Dataset DOI: 10.7923/9CFT-9G84 Dataset published to support the following peer-reviewed manuscript: Title: Assessing accuracy of GAP and LANDFIRE land cover datasets in winter habitats used by greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Wyoming, USA Journal: Journal of Environmental Management Manuscript DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111720 Data use: License: CC-BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Recommended Citation: Fremgen-Tarantino, M. R., Olsoy, P., Frye, G. G., Connelly, J. W., Krakauer, A. H., Patricelli, G. L., Child, A. W., & Sorensen Forbey, J. (2022). Data from: Assessing accuracy of GAP and LANDFIRE land cover datasets in winter habitats used by greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Wyoming, USA [Data set]. University of Idaho. https://doi.org/10.7923/9CFT-9G84 Dataset file structure: accuraccy_by_radius: 4sites_GAP_es_accuracybyradius.csv 4sites_Lfcommunity_accuracybyra.csv 4sites_LFspecies_accuracybyradi.csv AccuracyByRadius.R readme.txt confusion_matrices: confusion_matrices_2022.03.24.xlsx readme.txt gap_landfire_extracted_data: Field_GAP_LANDFIRE_LandCover.csv Figures_Height_and Cover.xlsx Vegetation_Cover_and_Height.csv readme.txt LANDFIRE_Height_Cover_Patches: All_Datums.csv NAD83_11N_Extract.csv NADCONUS27_11N.csv WGS84_11N_Extract.csv WGS84_12N_Extract.csv WGS84_12N.csv WGS84_LatLong_Extract.csv readme.txt master_data: All_ActualOutput.csv All_BySpecies(Big_Dwarf).csv All_GAP_Data.csv GF1.csv GF2.csv GF3.csv MF1.csv MF2.csv readme.txt Resource URL: https://data.nkn.uidaho.edu/dataset/data-assessing-accuracy-gap-and-landfire-land-cover-datasets-winter-habitats-used-greater Creator(s): 1. Marcella R. Fremgen-Tarantino ORCiD: NULL Affiliation: Boise State University 2. Peter J. Olsoy ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8785-0459 Affiliation: Boise State University 3. Graham G. Frye ORCiD: Affiliation: University of Alaska Fairbanks 4. John W. Connelly ORCiD: Affiliation: Idaho Department of Fish and Game 5. Alan H. Krakauer ORCiD: Affiliation: University of California Davis 6. Gail L. Patricelli ORCiD: Affiliation: University of California Davis 7. Andrew Wright Child ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6666-0739 Affiliation: University of Idaho 8. Jennifer Sorensen Forbey ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6069-4049 Affiliation: Boise State University Other Contributor(s): NA Title(s): Data from: Assessing accuracy of GAP and LANDFIRE land cover datasets in winter habitats used by greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Wyoming, USA Description: Remotely sensed land cover datasets have been increasingly employed in studies of wildlife habitat use. However, meaningful interpretation of these datasets is dependent on how accurately they estimate habitat features that are important to wildlife. We evaluated the accuracy of the GAP dataset, which is commonly used to classify broad cover categories (e.g., vegetation communities) and LANDFIRE datasets, which are classify narrower cover categories (e.g., plant species) and structural features of vegetation. To evaluate accuracy, we compared classification of cover types and estimates of percent cover and height of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) derived from GAP and LANDFIRE datasets to field-collected data in winter habitats used by greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Accuracy was dependent on the type of dataset used as well as the spatial scale (point, 100-m, 1-km and 5-km) and biological level (community versus dominant species) investigated. GAP datasets had the highest overall classification accuracy of broad sagebrush cover types (46.1%) compared to LANDFIRE datasets for narrower cover types (43.8% community-level; 42.6% species-level). Percent cover and height were not accurately estimated in the LANDFIRE dataset. Our results suggest that researchers must be cautious when applying GAP or LANDFIRE datasets to classify narrow categories of land cover types or to predict percent cover or height of sagebrush within sagebrush-dominated landscapes. We conclude that ground-truthing is critical for successful application of land cover datasets in landscape-scale evaluations and management planning, particularly when wildlife use relatively rare habitat types compared to what is available. Publisher: University of Idaho Publication Year: 2022 Language(s): American English Subject(s): 1. Natural Sciences 1.5 Earth and related Environmental sciences 1.6 Biological science 2. Engineering and Technology 2.7 Environmental engineering Keywords/Tags: Gap analysis program (GAP); Habitat classification; LANDFIRE; Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.); Centrocercus sp Resource Type General: Dataset Dates: NA Date available for the public: 2022-03-24 Sizes: 41MB Format(s): csv, txt, xlsx, r Version: NULL Funding References: Idaho Department of Fish and Game-Pittman-Robertson funds US National Science Foundation Award: IOS-1258217 US National Science Foundation Award: DEB-1146194 US National Science Foundation Award: DEB-1540085 Bureau of Land Management grant #L09AC16253 Sigma Xi Grants-In-Aid USDA Hatch funds (Project #CA-D-EVE-2264-H) US National Science Foundation Award: OIA-1757324 (Idaho EPSCoR) US National Science Foundation Award: OIA-1826801 (Idaho EPSCoR) Spatial/Geographical Coverage Location: Location-Idaho and Wyoming USA Geographic bounding box N: 43.5 S: 42 E: -108.5 W: -117 Temporal Coverage: 2011 to 2015 License: CC-BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Granularity of the Data: NULL Contact Info: Contact Name: Jennifer Forbey Contact Email: jenniferforbey@boisestate.edu Related Content: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111720-Peer reviewed manuscript-Journal of environmental management USGS, 2014. National Gap Analysis Program (GAP) Land Cover. U.S. Department of Inerior. http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/gapland cover/data/download/ USGS, 2015. LANDFIRE Vegetation Data. U.S. Department of the Interior. http://www.landfire.gov/.