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Research Project: Understanding Water-Driven Ecohydrologic and Erosion Processes in the Semiarid Southwest to Improve Watershed Management

Location: Southwest Watershed Research Center

Title: AmeriFlux should be an integral part of a GEWEX U.S. regional hydroclimate project

Author
item Scott, Russell - Russ
item SCHNEIDER, T. - National Center For Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Submitted to: Trade Journal Publication
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/20/2020
Publication Date: 9/1/2020
Citation: Scott, R.L., Schneider, T. 2020. AmeriFlux should be an integral part of a GEWEX U.S. regional hydroclimate project. Trade Journal Publication. 30(3):3-4.

Interpretive Summary: As we enter our third decade of the 21st century, the effects of a rapidly changing climate are becoming ever more obvious. Temperature records are being broken at a faster rate, precipitation patterns are shifting, and the climate is “weirding” –becoming more extreme in terms of both temperature and precipitation. The current (2020) extreme fire season underway in the western United States is beyond all norms and exemplifies the implications of this weirdness. These changes combined with a growing population, changing demographics and ageing infrastructure result in a plethora of problems that would benefit from the best science available on the energy and water cycles. Accordingly, scientists have argued for the need for a Regional Hydroclimate Project (RHP) to improve the science, modeling and observations of the linked water and energy cycles for the contiguous United States (CONUS), in line with other GEWEX calls for RHPs elsewhere. Such a venture should be coordinated and linked with existing projects in the CONUS that would result in strong synergistic results. One such project is AmeriFlux, a network of scientists who share data from sites that collect in situ eddy covariance measurements of the turbulent exchanges of energy and gases between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere across the Americas. AmeriFlux is well positioned to be an integral part of this GEWEX RHP in the United States.

Technical Abstract: As we enter our third decade of the 21st century, the effects of a rapidly changing climate are becoming ever more obvious. Temperature records are being broken at a faster rate, precipitation patterns are shifting, and the climate is “weirding” –becoming more extreme in terms of both temperature and precipitation. The current (2020) extreme fire season underway in the western United States is beyond all norms and exemplifies the implications of this weirdness. These changes combined with a growing population, changing demographics and ageing infrastructure result in a plethora of problems that would benefit from the best science available on the energy and water cycles. Accordingly, scientists have argued for the need for a Regional Hydroclimate Project (RHP) to improve the science, modeling and observations of the linked water and energy cycles for the contiguous United States (CONUS), in line with other GEWEX calls for RHPs elsewhere. Such a venture should be coordinated and linked with existing projects in the CONUS that would result in strong synergistic results. One such project is AmeriFlux, a network of scientists who share data from sites that collect in situ eddy covariance measurements of the turbulent exchanges of energy and gases between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere across the Americas. AmeriFlux is well positioned to be an integral part of this GEWEX RHP in the United States.