Reynolds Creek in southwest Idaho: An outdoor hydrologic laboratory

Robins, J. S.; Kelly, L. L.; Hamon, W. Russell

doi:10.1029/wr001i003p00407

Cited by 38 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…RCEW, a 239 km 2 watershed, located in the Owyhee Mountains of southwest Idaho, was added to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service watershed program in 1960 and continuous measurements of a suite of hydroclimatic records are available for RCEW since early 1960s (Robins et al 1965;Seyfried et al 2001). The topography of RCEW ranges from a flat valley in the north to steep mountain slopes in the south, with a range of elevation from 1099 to 2244 m ( Figure 1).…”

Section: Study Area: the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of climate-driven variability and trends for the hydrologic assessment of the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, Idaho

Sridhar

Nayak

2010

Journal of Hydrology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. © 2009, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at Journal of Hydrology, doi: 10.1016Hydrology, doi: 10. /j.jhydrol.2010 NOTICE: This is the author's version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. The definitive version has been published in Journal of Hydrology, Volume 385, Issue 1-4, 2010, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.020. Implications of Climate-Driven Variability and Trends for the Hydrologic Assessment of the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, IdahoVenkataramana Sridhar Boise State University Anurag Nayak Sutron Corporation AbstractThe Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to assess the implications of long-term climate trends for the hydroclimatology of the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW) in the Owyhee Mountains, Idaho of the Intermountain West over a 40-year period . Calibration and validation of the macroscale hydrology model in this highly monitored watershed is key to address the watershed processes that are vulnerable to both natural climate variability and climate change and . The model was calibrated using the streamflow data collected between 1997 and 2006 from the three nested weirs, the Reynolds Mountain East (RME) , Tollgate and Outlet. For assessing the performance of the calibrated model, this study used 30 years of streamflow data for the period between 1966 and 1996. This investigation suggested that the model predicted streamflow was best at RME, and inadequate at Outlet. Simulated soil moisture was also verified using the data available from five soil moisture measurement sites. The model was able to capture the seasonal patterns of changes in soil water storage considering the differences in the spatial extent of the observed and predicted soil water storage (point measurements against the spatially averaged values for the HRU) and uncertainty associated with the soil moisture measurements due to instrument effects. Water budget partitioning during a wet (1984) water year and a dry (1987) water year were also analyzed to characterize the differences in hydrologic cycles during the extreme hydrologic conditions. Our analysis showed that in the dry water year , vegetation at the higher elevation were under water stress by the end of the water year. Contrastingly, in the wet water year only the vegetation at low and mid elevations were under water stress whereas vegetation at the at the higher elevations derived substantial soil moisture for ET processes even towards the end of the growing season. To understand the effect of climate...

show abstract

Section: Study Area: the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of climate-driven variability and trends for the hydrologic assessment of the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, Idaho

Sridhar

Nayak

2010

Journal of Hydrology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, in 1985, the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation of the World Meteorological Organization recommended that an international study be established to compare current national methods of measuring solid precipitation (snow) (Goodison et al 1989). In 1986, the U.S. Department of AgricultureAgricultural Research Service, Northwest Watershed Research Center agreed to establish an intercomparison site on the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW) in southwest Idaho (Robins et al 1965;Flerchinger et al 1994). The RCEW was chosen as an intercomparison site because the climate there represents the inland mountainous area of the Pacific Northwest, and most of the meteorological instruments required for the study were available on-site.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Precipitation Catch between Nine Measuring Systems

Hanson

Johnson²,

Rango

1999

J. Hydrol. Eng.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A site was established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service on the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwest Idaho in the fall of 1987 and operated through the spring of 1994, to compare precipitation catch between nine precipitation-measuring systems. This site was established as a part of the World Meteorological Organization's program to compare current national methods of measuring solid precipitation (snow), so the primary emphasis of this study was the measurement of snowfall. Over seven seasons, four of the systems measured snowfall and total catch, which included snow, mixed snow and rain, and rain events, within 4% of the Wyoming shielded gauge, which had the greatest total catch. These measuring systems were the Alter shielded gauge and the dual-gauge system from the United States, the doublefence shielded gauge from Russia, and the Nipher shielded gauge from Canada. The unshielded universal recording gauge that was mounted with its orifice at 3.05 m had the least catch in all precipitation categories, which amounted to 24% less snow, 18% less mixed snow and rain, and 10% less rain than was measured by the Wyoming shielded gauge.

show abstract

“…This study took place in Reynolds Mountain East (RME), a sub‐basin of the RCEW (Flerchinger et al , 2007; Marks et al , 2001a; Marks et al , 2007; Robins et al , 1965). RCEW is located ∼80 km southwest of Boise, ID in the Owyhee Mountains and was established in 1959 by congress to address issues related to water supply, seasonal snow, soil freezing, water quality, and rangeland hydrology (Slaughter et al , 2001).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The site is in a semi‐arid western mountain environment. The data were collected within Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW), a US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service watershed (Flerchinger et al , 2007; Marks et al , 2001a; Marks et al , 2007; Robins et al , 1965). Given the variability measured over the 25 years, the conditions ranged from very wet and cool (VWC) to very dry and warm (VDW).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of the snowcover energetics in a mountain basin to variations in climate

Reba

Marks

Winstral

et al. 2011

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Snow is an important natural reservoir that holds water on the landscape for release later in the season in western North America and other portions of the world. As air temperature increases with global climate change, the character of the generally established seasonal snowcover will be affected. To study the specific response to variable climate, a carefully collected and processed meteorological data set for the 1984-2008 water years (WYs) was assembled for a snow-dominated headwater mountain catchment. The data were used to force a physically based, distributed energy balance snow model to simulate patterns of snow deposition and melt over the catchment for the 25-year period. This period covers both the highest (1984) and lowest (1992) snow seasons on record and exhibits extreme inter-annual variability. This unique forcing data set captured meteorological conditions that resulted in the range of variability in snowcover accumulation, timing of ablation, and the timing and amount of surface water input (SWI), and discharge during the 25-year study period. SWI is the amount of liquid water delivered to the soil surface from melting snow or from rain that passes through the snowcover or falls directly on the soil. Warm winters, characterized by early-and mid-winter rain, triggered earlier inputs from SWI and response in discharge than cool winters. Cool conditions prolonged the generation of SWI and streamflow out of the basin. Very wet conditions that were warm passed 50% of the SWI 27 days earlier and passed 50% of the discharge 15 days earlier, when compared to very wet conditions that were cool. Warmer conditions produced less snow water equivalent, shortened the melt season, and would be expected to extend the summer drought.

show abstract

Reynolds Creek in southwest Idaho: An outdoor hydrologic laboratory

Cited by 38 publications

References 0 publications

Implications of climate-driven variability and trends for the hydrologic assessment of the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, Idaho

Implications of climate-driven variability and trends for the hydrologic assessment of the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, Idaho

Comparison of Precipitation Catch between Nine Measuring Systems

Sensitivity of the snowcover energetics in a mountain basin to variations in climate

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About