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Data from: “Significant stream chemistry response to temperature variations in a high-elevation mountain watershed”

Creators: Williams K, Dong W, Brown W, Carroll R, Li L
Year: 2023
DOI: 10.15485/1892055
License: CC-BY 4.0
Location: The East River (ER) is a snow‐dominated, headwater basin of the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) located in the western United States. The ER is the designated testbed of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (WFSFA). Through WFSFA, observational networks have been established to measure stream discharge and precipitation chemistry. The ER is considered representative of many snow‐dominated headwaters of the Rocky Mountains. The study domain encompasses nearly 85 square km, a 1.4‐km vertical drop in elevation (4,120 to 2,760 m) and pristine alpine, subalpine, montane, and riparian ecosystems. The ER contains high‐energy mountain streams to low‐energy meandering floodplains and is eroding primarily into the Cretaceous, carbon‐rich, marine shale of the Mancos Formation. Additional metadata on specific locations within the watershed are provided in the following related data package: Varadharajan C. et al. (2022) doi:10.15485/1660962
Temporal extent: 2015-12-31 to 2019-10-09
Bounding box: 38.880°N to 39.034°N, -107.050°W to -106.880°W
Publisher: RMBL
Tags: temperature, Dissolved organic carbon, coal creek watershed, weathering , Concentration-Discharge, Discharge, stream chemistry, water temperature, carbon, nutrients, cations, Additional project funding - Watershed Function SFA, CATEGORICAL:NONE River stage/discharge, Alpine & Subalpine Ecology, Hydrology & Watersheds, Snow & Ice, Water Quality, Geology & Tectonics, Soil Science, Geochemistry & Isotopes, Climate Change Impacts, Weather & Atmospheric Science, Mining & Mineral Resources, Gunnison Basin, Research Programs

Description

High-elevation mountain regions, central to global freshwater supply, are experiencing more rapid warming than low-elevation locations. High-elevation streams are therefore potentially critical indicators for earth system and water chemistry response to warming. Here we present concerted hydroclimatic and biogeochemical data from Coal Creek, Colorado in the central Rocky Mountains at elevations of 2700 to 3700 m, where air temperatures have increased by about 2 °C since 1980. We analyzed water chemistry every other day from 2016 to 2019. Water chemistry data indicate distinct responses of different solutes to inter-annual hydroclimatic variations. Specifically, the concentrations of solutes from rock weathering are stable inter-annually. Solutes that are active in soils, including dissolved organic carbon, vary dramatically, with double to triple peak concentrations occurring during snowmelt and in warm years. We advocate for consistent and persistent monitoring of high elevation streams to record early glimpse of earth surface response to warming.1) Coal Creek stream were sampled and measured to answer the question if there is a significant stream chemistry response to climate change in high-elevation watershed2) The file contains data regarding discharge, water temperature and stream chemistry data for 2016-2019 year. Stream chemistry includes dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, chloride, nutrients, cations. The data collection efforts were carried out by the DOE-funded "Advancing a Watershed Hydro-Biogeochemical Theory: Linking Water Travel Time and Reaction Rates Under Changing Climate" project and Watershed Function SFA.

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