From expert knowledge to data-driven landscape classification: mapping ecological site groups across climatic and edaphic gradients

Abstract Background An Ecological Site Group (ESG) is a classifi cation framework used in rangeland management to group Ecological Sites(ESs) that exhibit similar responses to land use, disturbance, conservation practices, and environmental change. Methods In this study, we applied supervised machine learning techniques to predict expert-assigned ESGs for rangelandpoints from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) National Resources Inventory (NRI) dataset.The analysis focused on