The Colorado East River Community Observatory Data Collection

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Colorado East River Community Observatory (ER) in the Upper Colorado River Basin was established in 2015 as a representative mountainous, snow‐dominated watershed to study hydrobiogeochemical responses to hydrological perturbations in headwater systems. The ER is characterized by steep elevation, geologic, hydrologic and vegetation gradients along floodplain, montane, subalpine, and alpine life zones, which makes it an ideal location for researchers to understand how different mountain subsystems contribute to overall watershed behaviour. The ER has both long‐term and spatially‐extensive observations and experimental campaigns carried out by the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA), led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and researchers from over 30 organizations who conduct cross‐disciplinary process‐based investigations and modelling of watershed behaviour. The heterogeneous data generated at the ER include hydrological, genomic, biogeochemical, climate, vegetation, geological, and remote sensing data, which combined with model inputs and outputs comprise a collection of datasets and value‐added products within a mountainous watershed that span multiple spatiotemporal scales, compartments, and life zones. Within 5 years of collection, these datasets have revealed insights into numerous aspects of watershed function such as factors influencing snow accumulation and melt timing, water balance partitioning, and impacts of floodplain biogeochemistry and hillslope ecohydrology on riverine geochemical exports. Data generated by the SFA are managed and curated through its Data Management Framework. The SFA has an open data policy, and over 70 ER datasets are publicly available through relevant data repositories. A public interactive map of data collection sites run by the SFA is available to inform the broader community about SFA field activities. Here, we describe the ER and the SFA measurement network, present the public data collection generated by the SFA and partner institutions, and highlight the value of collecting multidisciplinary multiscale measurements in representative catchment observatories.

Hyporheic Oxygen Dynamics in the East River, Colorado: Insights From an In‐Situ, High Frequency Time Series During Two Distinct Flow Seasons

“…Summer (June‐August) air temperatures (mean of 12.56°C in 2017 and 13.34°C in 2018) and precipitation (136 mm in 2017 and 106 mm in 2018) were similar in 2017 and 2018 (Figures 3a and 4a, respectively). Snowpack (not shown), and river flows in the area were close to normal in 2016–2017, but less than average snowpack collected in the winter of 2017–2018 and river flows and groundwater levels were lower in 2018 than in 2017 for the same times of each year (Kakalia et al., 2021) (Figures 3b and 4b). Peak mean daily discharge in the East River in 2017 was 15.57 m 3 /s (on June 6), and in 2018 it was 5.65 m 3 /s (on May 17).…”

A Meteorology and Snow Data Set From Adjacent Forested and Meadow Sites at Crested Butte, CO, USA

“…Typical tree height in the study area is 9 m with a leaf area index (LAI) of 4. Additional canopy data are available from the Colorado East River Community Observatory (Kakalia et al., 2021). The area exhibits a continental snow climate, characterized by dry, cold air and frequent winter snow storms (Trujillo & Molotch, 2014).…”

CHOSEN: A synthesis of hydrometeorological data from intensively monitored catchments and comparative analysis of hydrologic extremes

“…We synthesized data from 30 intensively monitored study areas across the United States (Figure 2). Sixteen of the 30 study areas are from the LTER network (Servilla & Brunt, 2011), 11 from the CZO network (Zaslavsky et al, 2011) and the remaining three are East River, Dry Creek and Sagehen Creek (Kakalia et al, 2021;McNamara, 2017;Petersky & Harpold, 2018b). Table S1 includes additional information about the study areas in the CHOSEN dataset such as data source links, geographical information and climate conditions.…”

“…Here, we respond to the dearth of long‐term, regionally extensive, hydrologically comprehensive databases by presenting CHOSEN (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4060384), the Comprehensive Hydrologic Observatory SEnsor Network database, a compilation of publicly available hydrometeorological and hydrological measurements from 30 LTER (Long‐Term Ecological Research observatories; Servilla & Brunt, 2011), CZO (Critical Zone Observatories; Zaslavsky et al, 2011) and university field stations in the United States (Kakalia et al, 2021; McNamara, 2017; Petersky & Harpold, 2018a). We developed CHOSEN using a novel operational pipeline that overcomes the challenges associated with a lack of standardization across observatories.…”