2024 Hydrological, chemical and biological assessment of two New Mexico headwater streams

Headwater streams play an important 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 2024 field campaign. At each stream site, measurements were repeated for two or three separate transects.
Las Huertas Cre..., Discharge, sediment, and channel geometryDischarge at each transect was estimated using two methods: (1) the velocity-area method, with velocity measured using a Marsh-McBirney Flo-Mate Model 2000 flow meter, and (2) the salt dilution (or dry, or slug injection) method after Hudson and Fraser (2005). Electrical conductivity (EC) for the salt dilution method was monitored in 10-second increments using a YSI Professional Plus multiparameter meter, and in 1-second increments using an Arduino-based EC probe and datalogger built as part of the class. 
Particle size distribution of the channel bed surface was characterized based on the pebble count method (Wolman, 1954) by randomly selecting 100 pebbles along a zig-zag pattern (Bevenger and King, 1995) and measuring them with a gravelometer. In addition to the pebble count, grab samples (approximately 500 g) of stream and bank sediment were collected with a trowel at each transect and subjected to sieve analysis based on ASTM D6913 (ASTM, 200..., , # 2024 hydrological, chemical and biological assessment of two New Mexico headwater streams

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j6q573nqb](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j6q573nqb)

## Description of the data and file structure

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. The delayed release is particularly important during the dry season. Headwater streams are highly vulnerable to climate change, and monitoring over time is 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. The two sites are Las Huertas Creek (LH) and East Fork Jemez River (JR). This dataset contains measurements from the 2024 field campaign.

### Files and variables

**Description of t...