Riparian Evapotranspiration (ET) Study (SEON) from the Middle Rio Grande River Bosque, New Mexico (1999-2011): Energy Balance Data

This dataset was originally published on the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Data Portal, https://portal.lternet.edu, and potentially via other repositories or portals as described. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the source data package is doi:10.6073/pasta/14f8d4cc9f2277b9bded1fdf52bd4b18, and may be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/14f8d4cc9f2277b9bded1fdf52bd4b18. Metadata and files included in this record mirror as closely as possible the source data and documentation, with the provenance metadata and quality report generated by the LTER portal reproduced here as '*-provenance.xml' and *-report.html' files, respectively.This study originated with the objective of parameterizing riparian evapotranspiration (ET) in the water budget of the Middle Rio Grande. We hypothesized that flooding and invasions of non-native species would strongly impact ecosystem water use. Our objectives were to measure and compare water use of native (Rio Grande cottonwood, Populus deltoides ssp. wizleni) and non-native (saltcedar, Tamarix chinensis & Russian olive, Eleagnus angustifolia) vegetation and to evaluate how water use is affected by climatic variability resulting in high river flows and flooding as well as drought conditions and deep water tables. Eddy covariance flux towers to measure ET and shallow wells to monitor water tables were instrumented in 1999. Active sites in their second decade of monitoring include a xeroriparian, non-flooding salt cedar woodland within Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and a dense, monotypic salt cedar stand at Bosque del Apache NWR, which is subject to flood pulses associated with high river flows. These data are energy balance data collected as part of this study