Abstract

abstract:

The plowprint dataset has been a valuable tool for tracking cumulative grassland conversion to cropland in the North American Great Plains since its inception in 2014. The data has been used across disciplines from targeting conservation efforts to siting future wind energy sites to informing the agricultural supply chain. Recent improvements to source datasets, such as the Cropland Data Layer and National Land Cover Dataset, as well as advancements in methodologies employed by other land cover change analyses, prompted a revision to the plowprint methodology as well as reanalysis of previous years of plowprint data. The resulting datasets provide a consistent and accurate record of cumulative grassland conversion across the ecoregion.

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