Complimentary And Dense Sensor Networks To Understand Climate Variability In Mountainous Terrain

Climate change is motivating extensive research to understand potential future responses in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including relative spatial vulnerability. Ongoing efforts to downscale climate models is improving the resolution at which climate data are available, but outputs from the latest regional climate models remain coarse relative to the scales at which ecological processes operate and landscapes and natural resources are managed. Inexpensive digital sensors and remote sensing technology now facilitate the collection of copious amounts of information on a variety of environmental attributes. Within two large mountain river basins (>5,000km2) of contrasting physiographies in the northern Rockies, we have instrumented dense networks that consist of hundreds of sensors for stream temperature and air temperature. Numerous research questions regarding fine-scale climate variation will be addressed with data from each sensor network, such as the influence of physiography on temperature variation (e.g. cold air drainage and pooling, potential groundwater buffering of stream temperatures), the relative magnitude of site versus network variation, and land surface-air temperature feedbacks. The complimentary network approach also facilitates addressing a host of additional research questions not possible with a single network (e.g., do streams warm because of local air temperature increases or because some streams are more sensitive than others?). Additional sensor networks focused on snowmelt timing, stream flow, or other relevant environmental attributes could further enhance our understanding of the flow of materials and energy through these river basins and mountain landscapes in general. Development and strategic coordination of similar dense networks across a range of mountain environments in the western US or globally could provide valuable insights regarding potential ecosystem responses to climate change and how variability is structured across multiple scales.