Estimated current and future environmental suitability of pinyon and juniper tree species for 3 emission scenario pathways (SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, SSP5-8.5) across the western North America

These data were compiled to provide gridded estimates of environmental suitability for pinyon-juniper species in western North America. These gridded suitability projections provide estimates of suitability under current climate conditions and future climate conditions and allow for visualization of suitability change across each species’ entire range. These data consist of gridded projected suitability values for three pinyon and six juniper tree species across western North America. Objective(s) of our study were to estimate suitability for these tree species under current and future climate conditions to compare potential for distribution shifts under climate change. These data represent a relationship between tree occurrences on the landscape and the climatic and soil conditions in which they occur. These data were created from species distribution models that used occurrence data publicly available online. These underlying occurrence data used to fit our models was gathered from USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis program, BLM's Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring program, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and SEINet, a shared collection of western herbarium data records. Occurrence data were combined with environmental predictor data to fit species distribution models that then estimate landscape suitability under current and future climate conditions. These data can be used to assess how tree species' suitability may change under future climate conditions.