The East River, Colorado, Watershed: A Mountainous Community Testbed for Improving Predictive Understanding of Multiscale Hydrological–Biogeochemical Dynamics

Journal Article · Thu Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Vadose Zone Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2018.03.0061· OSTI ID:1787385

Hubbard, Susan S. ^[1]; Williams, Kenneth Hurst ^[1]; Agarwal, Deb ^[1]; Banfield, Jillian ^[2]; Beller, Harry ^[1]; Bouskill, Nicholas ^[1]; Brodie, Eoin ^[1]; Carroll, Rosemary ^[3]; Dafflon, Baptiste ^[1]; Dwivedi, Dipankar ^[1]; Falco, Nicola ^[1]; Faybishenko, Boris ^[1]; Maxwell, Reed ^[4]; Nico, Peter ^[1]; Steefel, Carl ^[1]; Steltzer, Heidi ^[5]; Tokunaga, Tetsu ^[1]; Tran, Phuong A. ^[1]; Wainwright, Haruko ^[1]; Varadharajan, Charuleka ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Berkeley CA 94720
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Berkeley CA 94720, Earth and Planetary Science Univ. of California Berkeley CA 94720
3. Desert Research Institute Reno NV 89512
4. Colorado School of Mines Golden CO 80401
5. Ft. Lewis College Durango CO 81301

Core Ideas

Development of a 300‐km ² mountainous headwater testbed began in 2016 in the East River.

The testbed can be used to explore how watershed changes impact downgradient water availability and quality.

System‐of‐system, scale‐adaptive approaches can potentially improve watershed dynamics simulation.

We have new approaches to monitor and simulate water partitioning and system responses.

The East River watershed has been developed as a “community” testbed.

Extreme weather, fires, and land use and climate change are significantly reshaping interactions within watersheds throughout the world. Although hydrological–biogeochemical interactions within watersheds can impact many services valued by society, uncertainty associated with predicting hydrology‐driven biogeochemical watershed dynamics remains high. With an aim to reduce this uncertainty, an approximately 300‐km ² mountainous headwater observatory has been developed at the East River, CO, watershed of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The site is being used as a testbed for the Department of Energy supported Watershed Function Project and collaborative efforts. Building on insights gained from research at the “sister” Rifle, CO, site, coordinated studies are underway at the East River site to gain a predictive understanding of how the mountainous watershed retains and releases water, nutrients, carbon, and metals. In particular, the project is exploring how early snowmelt, drought, and other disturbances influence hydrological–biogeochemical watershed dynamics at seasonal to decadal timescales. A system‐of‐systems perspective and a scale‐adaptive simulation approach, involving the combined use of archetypal watershed subsystem “intensive sites” are being tested at the site to inform aggregated watershed predictions of downgradient exports. Complementing intensive site hydrological, geochemical, geophysical, microbiological, geological, and vegetation datasets are long‐term, distributed measurement stations and specialized experimental and observational campaigns. Several recent research advances provide insights about the intensive sites as well as aggregated watershed behavior. The East River “community testbed” is currently hosting scientists from more than 30 institutions to advance mountainous watershed methods and understanding.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: NONE; AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1787385
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1506294; OSTI ID: 1787388
• Journal Information: Vadose Zone Journal, Journal Name: Vadose Zone Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 17; ISSN 1539-1663
• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English