Plant species distribution within the Upper Colorado River Basin estimated by using hyperspectral and LiDAR airborne data

Variations in Bedrock and Vegetation Cover Modulate Subsurface Water Flow Dynamics of a Mountainous Hillslope

“…The study site features a change in vegetation, with pine trees (predominantly pinus flexilis) covering the quartz monzonite porphyry dominated part of the transect, and meadow plants and veratrum covering the lower part, except for the end of the profile where spruce trees (mostly picea engelmannii) are present (Falco et al, 2020; Figure 1). The canopy height, which was used to determine the location of trees, is based on high resolution LiDAR data (Falco et al, 2020) and shows distinct trees with canopy heights of up to 20 m at the upper part of the transect and at its lower end. The transect follows the general flow direction as defined by the surface topography and ends at a perennial stream (usually referred to as "Unnamed drainage"), that feeds into Washington Gulch, which is a tributary to the Slate River that drains in the East River, the Gunnison River, and eventually flows into the Colorado River.…”

“…The fraction of coarse grained particles (>2 mm) shows more variability, accounting for 28.7% ± 15.0% of the analyzed samples, with higher coarse content in the western side of the transect. The study site features a change in vegetation, with pine trees (predominantly pinus flexilis) covering the quartz monzonite porphyry dominated part of the transect, and meadow plants and veratrum covering the lower part, except for the end of the profile where spruce trees (mostly picea engelmannii) are present (Falco et al, 2020; Figure 1). The canopy height, which was used to determine the location of trees, is based on high resolution LiDAR data (Falco et al, 2020) and shows distinct trees with canopy heights of up to 20 m at the upper part of the transect and at its lower end.…”

“…(b) Map of the study site and its installations, including electrical resistivity tomography monitoring line and the location of boreholes, weather stations, and soil and snow temperature sensors. The green shading indicates the canopy height estimates from LiDAR measurements(Falco et al, 2020). Coordinates are given in UTM Zone 13N, aerial photograph was obtained from Google Earth.…”

On the similarity of hillslope hydrologic function: a clustering approach based on groundwater changes

“…Hillslopes with low TWI (Zone 3) have the deepest WTD, contrary to the hillslopes of Zone 1. The TWI identifies hillslopes with similar WTD because of the high relief of the watershed that drives its hydrology (Fan et al, 2019). The land cover clustering indicates that most of the forest (Zone 2) and bare soil (Zone 3) hillslopes have deep WTD, whereas grass (Zone 1) hillslopes have the shallowest WTD.…”

“…Hillslopes are the scale at which hydrologic flow and transport processes can be tractably and frequently measured. It is also the scale at which flow and travel time are quantified and the instrumentation, conceptualization, and modeling of hydrologic processes occur (Fan et al, 2019, Wainwright et al, 2022. While advancements have been made in the general understanding of hillslope dynamics over the last several decades, there is yet to be a globally agreed-upon classification and/or clustering for this important scale of interest in hydrology (McDonnell and Woods, 2004).…”