Support to Western States Crucial Habitat Assessment Tools

The SRLCC provided funds to the states of Arizona and New Mexico to support development of the states Crucial Habitat Assessment Tools (CHATs) which provide a decision support system to better incorporate wildlife values, sensitive animals and plants, and important ecosystem features into land use decision-making to reduce conflicts and surprises.Several states have released wildlife mapping tools that are the foundation for displaying crucial wildlife and corridor information. The state and regional CHATs are non-regulatory, and give project planners and the general public access to credible scientific data on a broad scale for use in project analysis, siting and planning. This includes large-scale development...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, AZ-05, All tags... AZ-06, AZ-07, AZ-08, AZ-09, Applications and Tools, Arizona, Data Acquisition and Development, Datasets/Database, Decision Support, Four Corners, GIS, GIS, Green River Basin, LCC, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Map, Mule Deer and Elk, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03, Native Fish, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, Sage-steppe, State agencies, Upper Rio Grande, Western United States, completed, crucial habitat, crucial habitat, crucial habitat assessment, decision support system, decision support system, decision support systems, development, development, development, ecosystems, ecosystems, ecosystems, sensitive animals, sensitive animals, sensitive animals, sensitive plants, sensitive plants, sensitive plants, wildlife, wildlife, wildlife, Fewer tags

Improving Crop Coefficients for the Middle Rio Grande

Water resource managers rely on hydrologic planning and decision-making models to understand and evaluate current and future water operations in the face of endangered species needs, drought, and climate change. Current climate change projections, such as those used in the West-Wide Climate Risk Assessment programs, are trending toward more extreme instances of drought within the Southern Rockies LCC region. Accurately estimating agricultural water consumption both under present conditions and under modeled future scenarios will help water resource managers project how much water might be available for allocation toward current ecological projects. It will also improve their understanding of the challenges a more...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Decision Support, Federal resource managers, Informing Conservation Delivery, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, All tags... Middle Rio Grande, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03, New Mexico, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, State agencies, Streamflows, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande Basin, agricultural water use, agricultural water use, climate change, climate change, completed, crop coefficients, crop coefficients, drought, drought, evapotranspiration, evapotranspiration, hydrologic planning, hydrologic planning, Fewer tags

Soil Vulnerability to Future Climate Change in the Southern Rockies LCC, with Implications for Vegetation Change and Water Cycle

The Conservation Biology Institute is developing a tool that managers in all watersheds of the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative can use to project the effects of climate change on soil vulnerability conditions and help resource managers develop appropriate strategies to mitigate negative climate impacts.Specifically, they will develop a spatially-explicit soil vulnerability index for the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative that can be used to forecast short-term response of plants to current drought conditions and test a vegetation model of plant response to drought.Conservation Biology Institute will use the soil vulnerability index to compare historical and future simulations...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: AZ-01, AZ-04, Applications and Tools, Arizona, CO-02, All tags... CO-03, CO-05, Colorado, Conservation Planning, Datasets/Database, Federal resource managers, Four Corners, GIS, GIS, Green River Basin, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Map, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, SRLCC, State agencies, Tribes, UT-01, UT-02, UT-03, Upper Rio Grande, Utah, Vulnerability Assessment, Wyoming, climate change, climate change, completed, soil vulnerability, soil vulnerability, vegetation change, vegetation change, water cycling, water cycling, Fewer tags

A comparison of MODIS and NOHRSC snow-cover products for simulating streamflow using the Snowmelt Runoff Model

Remote sensing is an important source of snow-cover extent for input into the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) and other snowmelt models. Since February 2000, daily global snow-cover maps have been produced from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The usefulness of this snow-cover product for streamflow prediction is assessed by comparing SRM simulated streamflow using the MODIS snow-cover product with streamflow simulated using snow maps from the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC). Simulations were conducted for two tributary watersheds of the Upper Rio Grande basin during the 2001 snowmelt season using representative SRM parameter values. Snow depletion...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Hydrological Processes, MODIS, NOHRSC, Snowmelt Runoff Model, Upper Rio Grande, All tags... streamflow simulation, Fewer tags

Improving Seasonal Water Supply Predictions and Water Management in the Upper Rio Grande River Basin through use of Enhanced Observations of Snowfall, Snowpack and Physics-Based Modeling Systems

This project aims to improve seasonal water supply forecasts on the Upper Rio Grande River basin and, in doing so, help to minimize the substantial costs associated with erroneous forecasts and related sub-optimal allocations of water for surface irrigation, groundwater recharge and endangered specifies management. Erroneous seasonal water supply forecasts in the Upper Rio Grande River basin have a profound impact on water management, agricultural production and economic vitality.The specific goals of this project are to: Develop state-of the art precipitation and snowpack monitoring products through the use of experimental radar, surface observations and land data assimilation systems Improve the spatial and...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, GeoTIFF, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service, Raster; Tags: CO-03, Colorado, Colorado, Data Acquisition and Development, Federal resource managers, All tags... LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Monitoring, NM-03, New Mexico, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, State agencies, Streamflows, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, colorado, completed, hydrologic planning, hydrologic planning, hydrologic planning, new mexico, physics-based hydrologic modeling, physics-based hydrologic modeling, physics-based hydrologic modeling, precipitation monitoring, precipitation monitoring, precipitation monitoring, snowpack monitoring, snowpack monitoring, snowpack monitoring, srlcc, streamflow predictions, streamflow predictions, streamflow predictions, upper rio grande basin, water, water, water, water supply forecasting, water supply forecasting, water supply forecasting, Fewer tags

Modeling Low Stream Flows and Assessing the Ecological Impacts of Potential Stream Drying under Climate Change in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Streamflows in late spring and summer have declined over the last century in the western U.S. and mean annual streamflow is projected to decrease by six to 25% over the next 100 years. In arid and semi-arid regions of the western US, it is likely that some perennial streams will shift to intermittent flow regimes in response to climate-driven changes in timing and magnitude of precipitation, runoff, and evaporation. The project will address the following two research question: how will small stream (1st-3rd order) low flow hydrology be impacted by predicted longer, drier summers in the Upper Colorado River Basin under climate change and in turn, what will be the resulting impacts on riparian plant communities?...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: AZ-01, Applications and Tools, Arizona, CO-03, Colorado, All tags... Colorado Plateau, Conservation NGOs, Conservation Planning, Decision Support, Federal resource managers, Four Corners, GIS, GIS, Green River Basin, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, NM-03, Native Fish, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, SRLCC, SRLCC boundary, Southern Rocky Mountains, State agencies, Streamflows, UT-01, UT-02, UT-03, Upper Colorado River Basin, Upper Colorado River Basin, Upper Colorado River Basin, Upper Rio Grande, Utah, Vulnerability Assessment, WY-00, Wasatch and Uinta Mountains, Wyoming, climate change, climate change, completed, low flow hydrology, low flow hydrology, riparian, riparian, riparian vegetation, riparian vegetation, small streams, small streams, stream drying, stream drying, stream drying, stream flows, streamflows, streamflows, upper colorado river basin, Fewer tags

SnowModel simulations and supporting observations for the Rio Grande Headwaters, southwestern Colorado, United States, 1984 - 2017

This data release supports the study by Sexstone and others (2020) and contains simulation output from SnowModel (Liston and Elder, 2006), a well-validated process-based snow modeling system. Simulations are for water years 1984 through 2017 (October 1, 1983 through September 30, 2017) across a 11,200 square kilometer model domain in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, United States that encompasses the Rio Grande Basin headwaters (HUC8 13010001). This data release also contains supporting field-based snow and meteorological station observations collected within the model domain during water years 2016 and 2017 that were used to evaluate SnowModel simulations. Sexstone and others (2020) provide details...

Categories: Data; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Colorado, Rio Grande headwaters, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Upper Rio Grande, climatology, All tags... drainage basins, hydrology, land use change, meteorology, snow and ice cover, water budget, water resources, Fewer tags

Vulnerability of Riparian Obligate Species in the Rio Grande to the Interactive Effects of Fire, Hydrological Variation and Climate Change Modeling Woody Plant Regeneration and Debris Accumulation under Future Streamflow and Wildfire Scenarios in the SRLCC (Not listed in the LCC Science Catalog due to Desert LCC co-funding and catalog administering)

We propose to identify future risk of wildlife population decline for species inhabiting the Rio Grande, New Mexico. Specifically, we will examine and quantify the interactive effect of fire and climate change on the presence and long-term persistence of native and nonnative species in residing within Rio Grande riparian and wetland habitats. We will build upon recent species vulnerability assessment work conducted for the Rio Grande and incorporate new data and model output regarding fire behavior under different climate scenarios. Predictions for future species distributions will be coupled with scores representing species adaptive capacity to quantify vulnerability to changing climate and disturbance regimes....

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Applications and Tools, Conservation NGOs, Conservation Planning, Federal resource managers, GIS, All tags... GIS, LCC, Map, Middle Rio Grande, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03, New Mexico, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, State agencies, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, Vulnerability Assessment, climate change, climate change, completed, decision support tools, decision support tools, fire, fire, native species, native species, non-native species, non-native species, riparian, riparian, riparian obligate species, riparian obligate species, species distribution, species distribution, vulnerability, vulnerability, wetlands, wetlands, Fewer tags

Modeling Woody Plant Regeneration and Debris Accumulation under Future Streamflow and Wildfire Scenarios in the SRLCC

Rivers in the SRLCC differ from one another in flow characteristics, levels of regulation, and vulnerability to wildfire; characteristics that will be influenced by climate change (Seager et al. 2007, Mortiz et al. 2012). An understanding of how changes in streamflow and wildfire frequency will affect structure of live and dead woody vegetation is needed to for managers assess the vulnerability of riparian obligate species to climate change. We are developing stochastic transition models for cottonwood trees and snags along the Middle Rio Grande by modifying Lytle and Merritts (2004) stage-structured cottonwood population model. By incorporating influences of flood and wildfire into stage transition rates, we can...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Conservation NGOs, Cultural Resources, Decision Support, EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > LANDSCAPE, Federal resource managers, All tags... Informing Conservation Delivery, LCC, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Middle Rio Grande, NM-01, NM-02, NM-02, NM-03, NM-03, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, State agencies, Streamflows, Tribes, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, climate change, climate change, climate change, completed, cottonwood, cottonwood, cottonwood, debris, debris, debris, environment, fire, fire, population model, population model, population model, riparian, riparian, riparian, riparian obligates, riparian obligates, riparian obligates, vegetation, vegetation, vegetation, vulnerability, vulnerability, vulnerability, watershed management, watershed management, watershed management, wildlife, wildlife, woody vegetation, woody vegetation, woody vegetation, Fewer tags

National Wetland Inventory Mapping for the Colorado Portion of the SRLCC

Without reliable spatial data for wetland and riparian areas, it is impossible for land managers to accurately assess the distribution of critical aquatic habitats and model potential impacts caused by climate change. Wetlands in the Southern Rockies are particularly important for wildlife habitat, as they are often far more productive than the surrounding uplands. In addition, wetlands are an integral component of regional hydrologic cycles through their role in flood abatement, storm water retention, groundwater recharge, and water quality improvement.Colorados wetlands were mapped by the FWS early 1980 and in late 1990, and though the maps exist, they were created for print and most are not useful as digital...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Applications and Tools, CO-03, Colorado, Colorado, Conservation NGOs, All tags... Conservation Planning, Datasets/Database, Federal resource managers, Four Corners, GIS, GIS, Green River Basin, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Map, Project, SRLCC, SRLCC, State agencies, Upper Rio Grande, Western Colorado, Western Colorado, completed, national wetland inventory, national wetland inventory, riparian areas, riparian areas, water, water, wetlands, wetlands, wetlands, Fewer tags

Vulnerability and Connectivity of Natural Landscapes and Riparian Habitat in the SRLCC

Land managers have incorporated threats to biodiversity for nearly two decades, but very few efforts have included threats from future conditions and fewer still have assessed vulnerability to climate change. This project will address two themes: 1) providing foundational information about habitat fragmentation and connectivity and 2) identifying the degree of vulnerability of key habitats to climate change.For development of understanding broadextent, a landscape-level pattern of climate change is an important complement to approaches to estimate rangeshifts for certain key focal species. Ecological system types (i.e. coarsefilters) are widely used in conservation planning because they contain valuable resources...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: AZ-01, AZ-04, Applications and Tools, CO-02, CO-03, All tags... CO-05, Conservation Planning, Cultural Resources, Datasets/Database, Federal resource managers, Four Corners, GIS, Green River Basin, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Map, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03, Native Fish, Private land owners, Project, SRLCC, SRLCC, Sage-steppe, State agencies, Streamflows, UT-01, UT-02, UT-03, Upper Rio Grande, Vulnerability Assessment, climate change, climate change, completed, connectivity, connectivity, energy development, impact, impact, riparian habitat, riparian habitat, sensitivity, sensitivity, terrestrial habitat, terrestrial habitat, urban development, urban development, vulnerability, vulnerability, Fewer tags

Watershed Disturbance and Restoration Impacts on Hydrologic Function Relative to Increased Snowmelt Water Yields, Stream Water Quality, and Species Conservation in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico: Model Calibration and Validation on a Landscape Scale

The overall project goal is to understand and model the watershed impacts of forest restoration actions (thinning, prescribed fire) and climate change on the hydrologic function, particularly with respect to (1) changes in soil moisture and water yield during snowmelt, (2) inter-annual and directional changes in stream water quality, and (3) the resulting impacts on watershed management for wildlife species threatened by disturbance and climate change.Specifically, we will: use known relationships of forest structure on snow-water equivalent (SWE) values and processes of sublimation (ablation), infiltration and run-off in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico to model forest-stand restoration prescriptions,...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Cultural Resources, Decision Support, Federal resource managers, Informing Conservation Delivery, Jemez Mountains, All tags... Jemez Mountains, Jemez River, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, NM-03, Native Fish, New Mexico, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, State agencies, Streamflows, Tribes, Upper Rio Grande, Upper Rio Grande, Valles Caldera, climate change, climate change, completed, forest restoration, forest restoration, forest structure, forest structure, forest thinning, forest thinning, prescribed fire, prescribed fire, snowmelt, snowmelt, soil moisture, soil moisture, stream water yield, stream water yield, streamflows, streamflows, upper rio grande basin, water, water, watershed management, watershed management, Fewer tags