Desert Sand...not so data-sparse??

I've been thinking about scraps of data that might be out there pertinent to the Desert Sand ecosite. Since this ecosite may be merged with semi-desert sand by Utah NRCS, that expands the possibilities.

Data collected within GCNRA on desert sand (sand sage) ecosites:
Spence data: 10 plots with detailed veg surveys, not so detailed crust/ground cover surveys, canopy gap, and Herrick slake test.

Data that is likely useful:
1) Bowker, MB, Belnap, J., Miller, ME. 2006. Spatial Modeling of biological soil crusts to support rangeland assessment and monitoring. Rangeland Ecology and management 59: 519-529.

and Bowker, MB, Miller, ME, Belnap, J., Sisk, TD, Johnson, NC. 2008. Prioritizing conservation effort through the use of biological soil crusts as ecosystem function indicators in an arid region. Conservation Biology 22:

I almost certainly have detailed crust surveys on the semi-desert sand ecosite in sites I interpreted to be in a reference or potential state (not annualized, not blown out), these data also contain modeled soil stability estimates, magnetic enrichment relative to local bedrock, and various soil physico-chemical properties.

2) Chaudhary, VB, Bowker, MA, O’Dell, TE, Grace, JB, Redman, AE, Rillig, MC, Johnson, NC. 2009. Untangling the biological contributions to soil ctability in semi-arid shrublands. Ecological Applications 19: 110-122.

She has surface and subsurface soil stability, lots of mycorrhizae data Bala sampled sand-sage dominated eolian sandy ecosystems near Big Water GSENM, on a three step degradation gradient. These might be desert sand, or if not they are likely semidesert sand., and crust cover data.

3) Grand Canyon Trust baseline range assessment dataset.
Has detailed veg community, surface and subsurface stability on numerous sites on the Paria Plateau. NRCS Arizona calls these Sandy Uplands, but they seem to be the same ecosystem to me except just a little wetter. This surely captures all kinds of states.

4) GSENM rangeland assessment. Certainly has plots on Semi-desert sand, probably on desert sand. RLH survey, crust cover. Again, this probably captures multiple states.

Data that might have some limited value

1) Maestre et al. unpublished.

This study was sampled by me in Utah. One or two sites might fit the bill, especially one near Big Water. We conducted Tongway's landscape function analysis, a vegetation percent cover survey, and conducted soil biological assays such as respiration and enzyme activities. The main thing this contributes is some of the soil activity.

2) Tuhy, J.S., MacMahon, J.A., 1988, Vegetation and relict communities of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Final Report to the National Park Service. The Nature Conservancy.

The authors visited Steven's Bench above the Escalante River, and Antelope Island in Lake Powell (no longer an island), considering them to be "relict areas", i.e. reference/ potential states. They at least compiled species lists and may have done some quantitative sampling in a wet year when these were grasslands. Return visit to Steven's bench by me, Spence and several USGS people showed then not to be very grassy any longer back after the drought in 2003. I don't know what ecosites these are but they are reasonable analogs.