ABoVE: Dall Sheep Response to Snow and Landscape Covariates, Alaska, 2005-2008

The data were generated using SnowModel and used as snow covariates along with landscape covariates in modeling efforts to study Dall sheep movements in response to dynamic snow conditions. Thirty adult Dall sheep (12 male, 18 female) were captured and outfitted with global positioning system (GPS) collars programmed to acquire locations every seven hours.

Given the individual sheep locations, their distances to land cover (e.g., shrub, forest, glacier), landscape characteristics (e.g., elevation, terrain ruggedness index (TRI), vector ruggedness measure (VRM), slope, and aspect), snow depth and density, MODIS normalized difference snow index (NDSI), and other covariates were determined and are provided in the environmental data file. The snow density and depth data are provided at 25-m, 100-m, 500-m, 2000-m, and 10000-m grid resolutions, at 1-day increments, and cover the period September 1, 2005 through August 31, 2008.