Location Identifiers, Metadata, and Map for Field Measurements at the East River Watershed, Colorado, USA (Version 3.0)

This dataset contains identifiers, metadata, and a map of the locations where field measurements have been conducted at the East River Community Observatory located in the Upper Colorado River Basin, United States. This is version 3.0 of the dataset and replaces the prior version 2.0, which should no longer be used (see below for details on changes between the versions). Dataset description: The East River is the primary field site of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (WFSFA) and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Researchers from several institutions generate highly diverse hydrological, biogeochemical, climate, vegetation, geological, remote sensing, and model data at the East River in collaboration with the WFSFA. Thus, the purpose of this dataset is to maintain an inventory of the field locations and instrumentation to provide information on the field activities in the East River and coordinate data collected across different locations, researchers, and institutions. The dataset contains (1) a README file with information on the various files, (2) three csv files describing the metadata collected for each surface point location, plot and region registered with the WFSFA, (3) csv files with metadata and contact information for each surface point location registered with the WFSFA, (4) a csv file with with metadata and contact information for plots, (5) a csv file with metadata for geographic regions and sub-regions within the watershed, (6) a compiled xlsx file with all the data and metadata which can be opened in Microsoft Excel, (7) a kml map of the locations plotted in the watershed which can be opened in Google Earth, (8) a jpeg image of the kml map which can be viewed in any photo viewer, and (9) a zipped file with the registration templates used by the SFA team to collect location metadata. The zipped template file contains two csv files with the blank templates (point and plot), two csv files with instructions for filling out the location templates, and one compiled xlsx file with the instructions and blank templates together. Additionally, the templates in the xlsx include drop down validation for any controlled metadata fields. Persistent location identifiers (Location_ID) are determined by the WFSFA data management team and are used to track data and samples across locations. Dataset uses: This location metadata is used to update the Watershed SFA’s publicly accessible Field Information Portal (an interactive field sampling metadata exploration tool; https://wfsfa-data.lbl.gov/watershed/), the kml map file included in this dataset, and other data management tools internal to the Watershed SFA team. Version Information: The latest version of this dataset publication is version 3.0. The latest version contains a breaking change to the Location Map (EastRiverCommunityObservatory_Map_v3_0_20220613.kml), If you had previously downloaded the map file prior to version 3.0, it will no longer work. Use the updated Location Map (EastRiverCommunityObservatory_Map_v3_0_20220613.kml) in this version of the dataset. This version also contains a total of 51 new point locations, 8 new plot locations, and 1 new geographic region. Additionally, it corrects inconsistencies in existing metadata. Refer to methods for further details on the version history. This dataset will be updated on a periodic basis with new measurement location information. Researchers interested in having their East River measurement locations added in this list should reach out to the WFSFA data management team at [e-mail]. Acknowledgements: Please cite this dataset if using any of the location metadata in other publications or derived products. If using the location metadata for the NEON hyperspectral campaign, additionally cite Chadwick et al. (2020). doi:10.15485/1618130.