MacroSheds: a synthesis of long-term biogeochemical, hydroclimatic, and geospatial data from small watershed ecosystem studies

Abstract

The U.S. Federal Government supports hundreds of watershed ecosystem monitoring efforts from which solute fluxes can be calculated. While details of instrumentation and sampling methods vary across these studies, the types of data collected and the questions that motivate their analysis are remarkably similar. Nevertheless, little effort toward the compilation of these datasets has previously been made, and comparative watershed analyses have remained limited in scale. The MacroSheds project has developed a flexible, future-friendly system for continually harmonizing daily time series of streamflow, precipitation, and solute chemistry from 168+ watershed studies across the U.S., and supplementing each with a comprehensive set of predictive watershed attributes. The MacroSheds dataset is an unprecedented resource for watershed ecosystem science, and for hydrology, as a small-watershed supplement to existing collections of streamflow predictors, like CAMELS and GAGES-II. Macrosheds is accompanied by a web dashboard for visualization and an R package for local analysis.

MacroSheds: A synthesis of long‐term biogeochemical, hydroclimatic, and geospatial data from small watershed ecosystem studies

“…To meet acceptable use requirements of the MacroSheds dataset, one must comply with the licensing and IR stipulations of all applicable primary sources. At minimum, this entails citing the MacroSheds dataset (Vlah et al 2022), which is linked to source datasets through Ecological Metadata Language provenance. However, users must first check section 4.1 of data_use_agreements.docx, where our datasets are tiered according to the restrictiveness of source data licenses, as some sources require additional compliance.…”

Another Step Toward “Big” Catchment Science

“…The MacroSheds project aims to catalyze large‐scale and ongoing synthetic research by watershed ecosystem scientists, with the goal of developing theories that generalize across spatial scales, within and between watersheds/catchments (McDonnell et al 2007). The heart of the project is the MacroSheds dataset (Vlah et al 2023 b ), currently harmonizing streamflow, precipitation, and chemistry data from the Long‐Term Ecological Research program (LTER), the Critical Zone Network of observatories (CZO/CZ Net), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and other programs from the national to the municipal. It provides comprehensive watershed summary statistics wherever gridded products are available.…”

“…The dashboard at https://macrosheds.org provides flexible tools for visual exploration of the dataset, and the macrosheds R package (https://github.com/MacroSHEDS/macrosheds) simplifies access, analysis, and proper attribution of primary sources. The full dataset (Vlah et al 2023 b ), including rich metadata, is archived through the Environmental Data Initiative, with a planned update release every January. All project code is on GitHub (https://github.com/MacroSHEDS), and we welcome community contributions.…”

“…We will also continue development of a community upload portal, complete with both automated and manual-visual quality control. For a more thorough description of these components, please see our open-access data paper (Vlah et al 2023a). The Coastal Ecology Laboratory is located on the south coast of Wellington, Aotearoa's capital city.…”

Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin Volume 32 Number 4 November 2023 125‐155

“…The MacroSheds project aims to catalyze largescale and ongoing synthetic research by watershed ecosystem scientists, with the goal of developing theories that generalize across spatial scales, within and between watersheds/catchments (McDonnell et al 2007). The heart of the project is the MacroSheds dataset (Vlah et al 2023b), currently harmonizing streamflow, precipitation, and chemistry data from the Long-Term Ecological Research program (LTER), the Critical Zone Network of observatories (CZO/CZ Net), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and other programs from the national to the municipal. It provides comprehensive watershed summary statistics wherever gridded products are available.…”