The East River Community Observatory Data Collection: Diverse,
multiscale data from a mountainous watershed in the East River, Colorado
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) East River community observatory
(ER) in the Upper Colorado River Basin was established in 2015 as a
representative mountainous, snow-dominated watershed to study
hydrobiogeochemical responses to hydrological perturbations in headwater
systems. Led by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA), the ER
has both long-term and spatially-extensive observations paired with
experimental campaigns. The Watershed Function SFA, led by Berkeley
Laboratory, includes researchers from over 30 organizations who conduct
cross-disciplinary process-based investigations and mechanistic modeling
of watershed behavior in the ER. The data generated at the ER are
extremely heterogeneous, and include hydrological, biogeochemical,
climate, vegetation, geological, remote sensing, and model data that
together comprise an unprecedented collection of data and value-added
products within a mountainous watershed, across multiple spatiotemporal
scales, compartments, and life zones. Within 5 years of data collection,
these datasets have already revealed insights into numerous aspects of
watershed function such as factors influencing snow accumulation and
melt timing, water balance partitioning, and impacts of floodplain
biogeochemistry and hillslope ecohydrology on riverine geochemical
exports. Data generated by the SFA are managed and curated through its
Data Management Framework. The SFA has an open data policy, and over
sixty ER datasets are publicly available through relevant data
repositories. A public interactive map of data collection sites run by
the SFA is available to inform the broader community about SFA field
activities. Here, we describe the ER and the SFA measurement network,
present the public data collection generated by the SFA and partner
institutions, and highlight the value of collecting multidisciplinary
multiscale measurements in representative catchment observatories.