Temperature is an important variable for plants, animals, and ecohydrology. It can trigger growth, limit reproduction, and drive important rates and processes.  Temperature is also extremely variable in space and time, being subject to variable insolation, cold-air drainage, and shaded and evaporatively-cooled microclimates from vegetation. Other geophysical parameters, including precipitation, are similarly subject to various and poorly characterized variations at fine scales.

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This activity is really a collection of sub-projects and smaller that share a focus on characterizing finer scale microclimate and topoclimate variations and their implications for ecohydrological processes and biota. It includes ongoing work and involvement in the Nevada Climate Ecohydrological Assessment Network (NEVCAN), which was initiated in the Snake and Sheep Ranges with support from NSF-EPSCoR. It also includes smaller distributed temperature sensor networks deployed in the San Francisco Peaks (Arizona), Snake Range (Nevada), Kofa National Wildlife Refuge (Arizona), and montane pika observation network (Great Basin).  

 

People: Simeral, Vitale, Jacobs, Mutiibwa, Waller, Rideout, Jackson, Chileen, Albright

Key collaborators: Scotty Strachan (UNR/Geography), Erik Beever (USGS), Andrew McKechnie (U. Pretoria)

Funding: NSF-EPSCoR (including a subaward to Albright), Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative, NSF-Research Experience for Undergraduates, NASA New Investigator

 

Relevant Publications (*= supervised postdoc or advisee): 

• Mutiibwa, D*, S Strachan, TP Albright*, 2015, Land Surface Temperature and Surface Air Temperature in Complex Terrain. IEEE J. Sel. Topics App. Earth Obs. & Remote Sensing, pp(99), 1-13.