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.