Water Resources of Colorado

Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB)

Loch Vale Watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

DATA COLLECTION

Hydrologic and Chemical Data

(Analyses for chemistry include major ions, nutrients, DIC, DOC, and selected samples isotopes including ²H/H, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O in nitrate ion, ³⁵S, ³⁴S/³²S, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, ¹³C, ¹²C)

• Precipitation: quantity- 3 sites continuous; chemistry, 1 site, biweekly.
• Stream discharge, 2 sites (Andrews Creek-Loch Vale, Icy Brook-Loch Vale)
• Stream chemistry, (Andrews Creek, Icy Brook-Loch Vale)
• Spring discharge, conductance, and temperature, 3 sites continuous.
• Spring water chemistry, 3 sites biweekly, 20-30 sites once during low-flow season.
• Soil lysimeters, 5 sites, biweekly to monthly during summer
  and fall.
• Snowpack amount and chemistry (depth, snow-water equivalent) basin-wide survey at maximum accumulation, index sites biweekly to monthly.
• Selected microenvironment runoff, e.g., rock outcrop, talus fields, weekly to monthly.
• Meteorology: 3 sites (wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, incoming and outgoing radiation, relative humidity), continuous.
• Gas flux (CO₂ and CH₄) in wetland, forest, and talus soils, weekly to monthly; CO₂ concentrations in surface waters at 10-15 sites several times annually.
• Snowmelt lysimeter discharge and chemistry, monitored for three years, currently inactive.

Loch Vale Meteorological Data

Main Weather Station 40^o17'17" 105^o39'43"

Short-wave radiation, incoming (psp)
Short-wave radiation, outgoing (psp)
Long-wave radiation, incoming (pir)
Long-wave radiation, outgoing (pir)
6 m air temperature
2 m air temperature
6 m wind speed and direction
2 m wind speed and direction
precipitation

Andrews Creek Station 40^o17'25" 105^o39'57"

• Solar radiation (psp, short-wave)
• 4 m air temperature
• 4 m relative humidity
• 4 m wind speed and direction
• Snow depth
• Precipitation

• Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)
• Soil temperature at 1, 5, and 10 cm
• Stream conductance and temperature

• Soil temperature at 1, 5, and 10 cm
• Soil moisture from 0 to 15 cm

Sharkstooth Weather Station 40^o16'42" 105^o40'29"

Solar radiation (psp, short-wave)
4 m air temperature
4 m relative humidity
4 m wind speed and direction
Precipitation

Data Management

Chemical and isotopic data are stored in a relational data base (4th Dimension) on a Macintosh computer. Meteorologic data are stored in flat files on a Unix machine. Discharge data are stored in WATSTORE and in 4th Dimension on a Macintosh.

Quality Assurance

Chemical and isotopic data undergo quality-assurance checks at the end of the hydrologic season after the data sets are complete. Checks include evaluations of time-series plots, charge balance, calculated versus measured conductance, and results of blanks, duplicates, and blind-audit samples. Meteorologic data is downloaded bimonthly and is scrutinized using time-series plots prior to being appended to existing flat files. Discharge data are processed by field office personnel according to standard U.S. Geological Survey procedures.

This page is at URL: http://co.water.usgs.gov/lochvale/data.html

Please send questions and (or) comments about the Colorado WEBB project to: co.lochvale@usgs.gov

Maintained by: webmaster_co@usgs.gov

Last Modified: 06/06/2005