Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed
Location
Located in SE Arizona, USA surrounding the historic city of Tombstone, the 150 km² Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed was established in the early 1950's to study the role of watershed treatments on downstream water yield. The site was deemed typical of the black grama grass-brush dominated areas of southern New Mexico and Arizona.
Catchment size
150 km²
Climate
Semiarid
Geology
Vegetation/Land use
Black grama grass-brush dominated areas
Context of investigation
The role of watershed treatments on downstream water yield
Measurements/Equipment
- Precipitation since 1953
- Meteorology
- Runoff
- Sediment transport
- Soil Moisture
Links to project webpages
other Links
References
- Costa, A.C., Bronstert, A., de Araújo, J.C. 2012. A channel transmission losses model for different dryland rivers. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 1111-1135, DOI: 10.5194/hess-16-1111-2012.
- Emmerich, W.E., Verdugo, C.L. 2008. Long-term carbon dioxide and water flux database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 44, W05S09, DOI: 10.1029/2006WR005693.
- Houser, P., Gupta, H.V., Shuttelworth, W.J., Famiglietti, J.S. 2001. Multiobjective calibration and sensitivity of a distributed land surface water and energy balance model. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES 106, D24, 33421-33433, DOI: 10.1029/2000JD900803.
- Nichols, M.H., Nearing, M.A., Polyakov, V.O., Stone, J.J. 2013. A sediment budget for a small semiarid watershed in southeastern Arizona, USA. GEOMORPHOLOGY 180, 137-145, DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.10.002.
- Polyakov, V.O., Nearing, M.A., Hawdon, A.A., Wilkinson, S.N., Nichols, M.H. 2013. Comparison of two stream gauging systems for measuring runoff and sediment yield for a semi-arid watershed. EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS 38(4), 383-390, DOI: 10.1002/esp.3287.
- Scott, R.L. 2010. Using watershed water balance to evaluate the accuracy of eddy covariance evaporation measurements for three semiarid ecosystems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 150, 219–225, DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2009.11.002.
- Sivandran, G., Bras, R.L. 2013. Dynamic root distributions in ecohydrological modeling: A case study at Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 49(6), 3292-3305, DOI: 10.1002/wrcr.20245.
- Sivandran, G., Bras, R.L. 2012. Identifying the optimal spatially and temporally invariant root distribution for a semiarid environment. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH 48, W12525, DOI: 10.1029/2012WR012055.
- White, C.B., Houser, P.R., Arain, A.M., Yang, Z.L., Syed, K., Shuttleworth, W.J. 1997. The aggregate description of semi-arid vegetation with precipitation-generated soil moisture heterogeneity. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 1, 205-212, DOI: 10.5194/hess-1-205-1997.