Paint Rock Pressure Transducer Data (AIMS_SE_PRF_PRES)

This study was conducted in the Paint Rock research watershed (outlet location: 34.96861724,  -86.16501705) on privately owned property in Jackson County (AL, USA). The watershed drains a non-perennial unnamed tributary to Burks Creek, and contains 2.97 km^2 of deciduous forest in the Cumberland Plateau physiographic section. Located near Estillfork, AL, the watershed spans an elevation range from 211 to 550 m above sea level, and is a tributary to the Paint Rock River (within the larger Tennessee basin). The region has a humid subtropical climate, with mean daily January and July air temperatures of 4.4°C and 25.4°C respectively, and mean annual precipitation of 1,390 mm/yr.

These data were collected in support of the sampling goals of the Aquatic Intermittency effects on Microbiomes in Streams (AIMS) Project. 9 pressure transducers were placed in either exclusively surface water monitoring wells (n = 7) or a set of nested groundwater and surface water monitoring wells (n = 2; site = PRM01) along the Paint Rock watershed, as well as an additional pressure transducer hanging from a tree in the upper reaches of the watershed to collect barometric pressure. These 10 pressure transducers collected data from Jul. 2021 through Oct. 2024, with the two pressure transducers at the watershed outlet being vented sensors (Seametrics PT12 pressure/temperature sensor) from 2021 through Jun. 2024, whereas all other sensors were unvented (Onset HOBO U20 series pressure transducers). These well locations monitored water level continuously throughout the project, and seven of them (all but site PRM09) served as the AIMS approach 2 sampling locations, where a field team co-collected datasets characterizing the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology across seven locations within the Paint Rock watershed six times across two years.

The two nested outlet sensors and the barometric sensor were set to collect temperature and pressure data every 15 minutes for the entirety of the project, and all other sensors collected the same data at 30 minute intervals starting from Jul. 2021 through Feb. 2024, and every 1 hour from Feb. to Oct. 2024. The raw pressure data were converted to water level using barometric pressure data and surveyed elevation data. Each .csv file is associated with a single sensor for a single year.