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Nov 2021

Snowtography: Snowpack & Soil Moisture Monitoring Handbook

Elizabeth Payton, Joel Biederman, Marcos Robles
Arizona, Colorado River Basin, Western U.S.
Forest
USDA ARS, Western Water Assessment
Abstract

The Nature Conservancy, in collaboration with the Western Water Assessment and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, has produced a snowtography handbook to support resource managers, researchers, and practitioners seeking to understand how the arrangement and density of trees, or the size and severity of disturbances, affect snowpack persistence and soil moisture availability in forested headwater settings. The snowtography handbook guides readers through the process of establishing their own snowtography and soil moisture monitoring stations. It offers guidance on site selection, snowtography options, equipment requirements, and installation. The instructions are based on snow-forest research and hands-on experience at multiple sites in Arizona, and in the San Juan National Forest in southwestern Colorado. This project was supported by a generous grant from the Walton Family Foundation to The Nature Conservancy.

The Western Water Assessment hosts a companion webpage here

Links
TNC Snowtography Handbook
PDF, 13.20 MB
TNC Snowtography Supplement - Equipment List
PDF, 53.6 kB
TNC Snowtography Supplement - USDA Snow Survey Sampling Guide
PDF, 3.46 MB
TNC Snowtography Supplement - example snowtography data entry sheet
XLSX, 18.7 kB
 

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