Snow Properties and Wildlife Tracks in Washington and Alaska

Description

This dataset contains three field seasons of snow-wildlife observations conducted at 707 sites from January 2021 to March 2023 in Washington and Alaska, spanning a broad range of snow conditions. Relatively fresh tracks (usually <24 h) of common large mammal predators (bobcats, coyotes, cougars, and wolves) and their ungulate prey (caribou, Dall sheep, moose, mule deer, and white-tailed deer) were investigated to determine how snow affects predator-prey interactions. The track sink depth and dimensions (width and length) of three consecutive footprints were measured from one individual. Age class was recorded for moose based either on visual confirmation of an individual creating snow tracks or based on track dimensions. The ability to differentiate age classes for smaller ungulates was more uncertain, so age classes for deer, caribou, or sheep were not specified. Animal gait was identified using a simple classification scheme. Data also include animal species, snow density, hardness, total ice, surface temperature, and vegetation type. To best capture snow hardness, surface penetrability and hand-hardness were measured throughout the snowpack. The data are provided in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 ORNL DAAC Data Set Documentation https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA.html
21 Data set Landing Page DOI URL https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2188
21 Search results for publications that cite this dataset by its DOI. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=10.3334%2FORNLDAAC%2F2188
21 This link allows direct data access via Earthdata login https://daac.ornl.gov/daacdata/above/Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA/
21 ABoVE project site https://above.nasa.gov
33 Snow Properties and Wildlife Tracks in Washington and Alaska: Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA.pdf https://data.ornldaac.earthdata.nasa.gov/public/above/Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA/comp/Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA.pdf
22 Study areas. The Denali study area in interior Alaska comprises mostly tundra and boreal snow. The Okanogan study area in Washington is diverse but comprised mostly montane forest. Other Okanogan snow classes are prairie and ephemeral, with some maritime on the western extremes and very limited boreal/tundra at the highest elevations. Northeast Washington contains montane forest, prairie, and ephemeral snow classes. Black points show locations of sampled snow tracks in each study area. https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Snow_Wildlife_Tracks_AK_WA_Fig1.jpg

Tags

  • snow-ice
  • cryosphere
  • biological-classification
  • animals-vertebrates
  • earth-science

Topics

Categories