Project Number: 5342-13610-007-04
Project Type: Specific C/A

Start Date: Sep 21, 2001
End Date: Aug 31, 2006

Objective:
Conduct a five-stage effort to cooperatively: 1)Develop and implement the "Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment" (AGWA) tool; 2) Assess the impact of landscape change on watershed response using AGWA; 3) Determine the amount of water used by riparian vegetation of the Upper San Pedro River and its source; and, 4) Determine the water use and source of mesquite, the dominant vegetation type and its relation to carbon and nitrogen storage and fluxes. Formerly 5342-13610-006-04S (5/1/02).

Approach:
Univ. of Ariz. Advanced Resources Technology (ART) group will assist ARS in coupling ARS hydrologic models with the best available GIS tools to develop a user-friendly window-based tool. The resulting tool will be tested and applied in a number of watershed in the western US to assess the impacts of landscape change on watershed response. To quantify riparian water use and carbon and nitrogen fluxes, sapflow instrumentation over a range of mesquite tree sizes will be deployed. Vapor sampling instrumentation to isotopically distinguish soil evaporation from plant transpiration will be deployed in premonsoon, monsoon, and postmonsoon seasons. In addition, the environmental factors that influence mesquite water use will be quantified to extrapolate findings from the intensive site measurements to the larger riparian corridor. Based on these measurements, the total consumptive groundwater use by riparian vegetation within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area will be quantified. Documents SCA with U. Of Arizona. Formerly 5342-13610-006-04S (5/1/02).

Project Team

Goodrich, David - Dave Philip Guertin - Professor 520-670-6481

Project Annual Reports

FY 2003   FY 2002

Related National Programs

Water Quality & Management (201)   Global Change (204)