Hydrological, chemical and biological assessment of two New Mexico headwater streams (2023)

Headwater streams play a crucial role in arid and semiarid regions. They
provide freshwater to adjacent lowlands and temporarily store water as
snowpack and groundwater. Downstream users – both humans specifically and
ecosystems more broadly – depend on the delayed release, particularly
during dry seasons. Headwater streams are highly vulnerable to climate
change through shifts in snowmelt dynamics, changes in precipitation,
evapotranspiration, and wildfire prevalence, among other factors.
Monitoring headwater streams in dryland areas over time is therefore of
critical importance. Each year, graduate students enrolled in the Water
Resources Program at the University of New Mexico monitor hydrological,
chemical, and biological characteristics of two headwater streams in
central New Mexico as part of a field methods class. This dataset contains
measurements from the 2023 field campaign. At each stream site,
measurements were repeated for three separate transects.   Las
Huertas Creek (LH), the first monitoring site, is the only perennial
stream in the Sandia Mountains. The stream drains north from the
northeastern slope of the Sandias towards the town of Placitas, running
through a narrow and heavily forested canyon. Transects range in elevation
from 2190 m – 2320 m above sea level and were sampled on September 30,
2023. The second monitoring site is on the East Fork of the Jemez River
(JR) within the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The stream runs through
montane grasslands of the caldera, a 20 km circular depression formed by a
large volcanic eruption and subsequent land subsidence approximately 1.2
million years ago. Transects are located at an elevation of approximately
2560 m above sea level and were sampled on October 7, 2023.