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 behavior. 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 modeling of watershed behavior. 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 five 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 seventy 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.
Data Set Name
The Colorado East River Community Observatory Data Collection
Site Description
The East River community observatory (ER) in the Upper Colorado Basin, United States (39.033° N 107.12° W, 38.83° N 106.88° W) is a 300 square kilometer headwater catchment representative of watersheds in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States (Hubbard et al., 2018) degrees. The ER lithology consists of igneous formations intruding into carbon-rich marine shale in the Mancos Formation, as well as sedimentary strata grading older (Permian) to younger (Tertiary) as one moves east to west across the ER domain with pockets of significant mineralization (Carroll et al., 2018; Gaskill, 1991). The watershed comprises montane, subalpine, and alpine life zones that collectively include aspen, meadow, mixed conifer, sagebrush, grasses, and sedges. Further details about the ER are provided in Hubbard et al. (2018) and Carroll et al. (2017).
Since 2015, the ER has been the primary field site for the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA; http://watershed.lbl.gov) led by Berkeley Lab, and is one of several U.S. Department of Energy testbeds conducting interdisciplinary research to gain a predictive understanding of watershed functioning and their response to perturbations using measurements and modeling from the bedrock through soil and vegetation to the atmospheric interface. The ER serves as a community testbed for over 30 collaborating institutions that collectively aim to understand the impacts of perturbations, such as drought and early snowmelt, on the hydrobiogeochemical dynamics of mountainous, headwater catchments at seasonal to decadal timescales.