Soil moisture and temperature surveys for Saddle Stream Network, 2017

Surface soil moisture and temperature reflect patterns in snowmelt and hydrologic connectivity in alpine ecosystems. In the summer of 2017, surface soil moisture and temperature were measured on eight surveys at 84 locations in the Niwot Ridge Saddle Stream catchment. The eight surveys were July 3, 2017 – September 9, 2017. Overall, soil moisture showed the influence of snowmelt early in the season and equilibration of soil moisture during the summer monsoon. Seasonal patterns in soil temperature were opposite that of soil moisture in that temperatures increased until the summer monsoon, which cooled surface soils temporarily. Soil moisture was highly variable between locations in that some locations remained consistently dry, while others remained consistently wet. Still others experienced an order of magnitude of variation in soil moisture over the course of the season. These data are useful for validating hydrologic models and remotely sensed thermal and moisture properties, informing growing season plant phenology, and understanding hydrologic connectivity in alpine ecosystems.