Meteorological, soil moisture, surface water, and groundwater data from the St. Denis National Wildlife Area, Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

Abstract. The St. Denis National Wildlife Area is located in the seasonally frozen and semi-arid Canadian Prairies, close to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The site has a hummocky terrain and is underlain by clay-rich glacial tills. Though the site is only 4 km2 it contains hundreds of wetlands containing ponds which range in size, in permanence (from ephemeral to permanent), and in their interactions with groundwater (recharge and discharge ponds are present). The site was established as a research area in 1968 and has long-term records of hydrological observations, including meteorological, snow, soil moisture, surface water (ponds) and groundwater data. Some records, notably the pond level and chemistry data, span the period 1968 to present. Other datasets, notably water level observations from networks of piezometers, have been collected sporadically at different locations and times. Some datasets are collected manually on an annual basis, including pond surveys and snow surveys. Meteorological data have been collected by automatic weather stations since 1989 and have been maintained and upgraded over time, with a flux tower added to the site in 2011. Automatically logged soil moisture profiles and collocated piezometers have been running since 2013. A lidar survey from 2005 provides a 1 m resolution digital elevation map (DEM) of the site and surrounding landscape. The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.20383/101.0115 (Bam et al., 2018).

The Texas Soil Observation Network:A Comprehensive Soil Moisture Dataset for Remote Sensing and Land Surface Model Validation

“…Colliander et al (2017b) specified the SMAP requirements for a dense Cal/Val network with 70% confidence for 0.03 m 3 m −3 SWC uncertainty and 0.07 m 3 m −3 variability as eight stations in a 36‐km pixel or a density of 0.006 locations km −2 while TxSON has a location density of 0.03 locations km −2 . Other open‐source producers include the Raam network in the Netherlands (Benninga et al, 2018), Johnston Draw in the Reynolds Creek watershed of Idaho (Godsey et al, 2018), the Danish network HOBE (Jensen and Refsgaard, 2018), OMERE in France (Molénat et al, 2018), TERENO in Germany (Kiese et al, 2018), and several networks in Canada (Bam et al, 2019; Tetlock et al, 2019).…”

A Model for the Soil Freezing Characteristic Curve That Represents the Dominant Role of Salt Exclusion

“…The objective of the field study was to measure the SMC and SFC for different in situ soils with varying texture and salinity. The field studies were conducted at the St Denis National Wildlife Area (SDN) in the Canadian prairies (Bam & Ireson, 2019; Bam et al., 2019) and the Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) Old Jack Pine (OJP) site in the boreal plans ecozone in Saskatchewan (Ireson et al., 2015; Nazarbakhsh et al., 2020).…”

Ephemeral Ponds: Are They the Dominant Source of Depression‐Focused Groundwater Recharge?

“…The monthly mean temperature in Saskatoon varies between −14.7°C in January and 18.7°C in July (Wittrock & Beaulieu, 2015). Annual precipitation at SDNWA is approximately 360 mm/year, with around 80 mm/year falling as snow, but this is highly variable from year to year (Bam et al, 2019;Nachshon et al, 2014). The potential evaporation in the region exceeds total annual precipitation and is estimated at 700-800 mm/year, with annual open water (lake) evaporation at approximately 700 mm/year (Parsons et al, 2004).…”