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Site Description
This tower (35.888447 N, 106.532114 W) is located in the ~1200 km2 Jemez River basin of the Jemez Mountains in north-central New Mexico at the southern margin of the Rocky Mountain ecoregion in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The tower is at 2500 m elevation and the climate can be characterized as semi-arid, montane. Mean annual temperature at this site is 6.4 C, and Mean annual precipitation is 646 mm. Precipitation is bimodal, where ~65% of the annual precipitation falls primarily as snow between October and April, and ~30% falls as rain during the monsoon months between July-September.
The primary forest type of the study site is a mixed conifer forest, consisting of Douglas fir, white fir, blue spruce, southwestern white pine, limber pine, and ponderosa pine along with scattered aspens and very little understory (Muldavin and Tonne, 2003). Site characteristics for the trees at this site are 783 (259, one standard error) stems ha-1, with a mean diameter at breast height (dbh) of 26.9(2.5) cm, mean height of 19.6(0.9) m, and LAI of 3.43 (0.50) m2 m-2 (McDowell et al. 2008)
This tower was set up by the NSF Science and Technology Center for the Sustainability of Semi-arid Hydrology (SAHRA) in 2005 in an effort to understand the role of vegetation type and structure on basin scale water resources. We have been maintaining the tower and processing the fluxes as part of SAHRA since October 2006.
McDowell, N, Sandra White, William Pockman (2008). Transpiration and stomatal conductance across a steep climate gradient in the southern Rocky Mountains. in review, Ecohydrology.
Instrumentation
Sensor |
Height (meters) relative to ground surface |
CSAT 3-D Sonic Anemometer |
21.65 |
LI-7500 open-path IRGA |
21.65 |
CNR1 Kipp&Zonen Net Radiometer |
20 |
NR-Lite net radiometer below canopy |
6 |
HMP45C Vaisala Temperature/ RH Probe |
4.28, 21.65 |
2-D Cup anemometer |
4.28, 21.65 |
CS105 Vaisala PTB101B Barometric Pressure |
2 |
HFT3 REBS Soil Heat Flux Plates (quantity 1) |
8 cm below surface |
TCAV Averaging Soil Termocouple Probes (quantity 4) |
2 and 6 cm below surface |
CS616 Soil Water Content Reflectometer(3 profiles) |
5, 10, 50 cm |
CR5000 datalogger |
|
Results
Mixed Conifer Site View
Mixed Conifer Site Vegetation
Mixed Conifer Site Tower View
Mixed Conifer Site Aerial View
© 2008 Marcy Litvak
Last Updated: January 14, 2008
For more information please contact: Dr. Marcy Litvak
Created by: Kimberly Bandy, January 2008