posted on 2024-02-16, 18:38authored byDavid L. Hoover, Alison Post, Gary W. Frasier, David J. Augustine, Justin D. Derner
<p>This dataset contains growing season precipitation data collected from an extensive rain gauge network with thirty catch cans distributed on the USDA-Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER) in Nunn, Colorado from 1982-2013. The CPER is a site in the USDA Long-term Agroecosystem Research Network. These data provide records of long-term observations, which can be applied to assess responses to naturally occurring deluges across the 62.7 km2 CPER in NE Colorado, a SGS ecosystem with significant spatial variation in precipitation received during the growing season, soils and grazing management, and where several small-scale deluge experiments have been conducted. </p><div><br>Resources in this dataset:</div><br><ul><li><p>Resource Title: Raw Precipitation Data .</p> <p>File Name: PrecipitationData_1982_2013_Raw.csv</p><p>Resource Description: Raw Precipitation Data from thirty catch can gauges on the Central Plains Experimental Range</p></li><br><li><p>Resource Title: Processed precipitation data to identify deluges.</p> <p>File Name: PrecipitationData_Processed.csv</p><p>Resource Description: Processed precipitation data to identify deluges on the Central Plain Experimental Range</p></li><br><li><p>Resource Title: Data Dictionary for raw and processed data.</p> <p>File Name: DataDictionary_PrecipitationData_Raw_Processed_CPER.csv</p><p>Resource Description: Data dictionary for processed precipitation data to identify deluges and for raw precipitation data from thirty catch can gauges on the Central Plains Experimental Range.
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Mean annual precipitation is 321 mm, and most rainfall (70%) occurs as patchy, often intense convective storms during the warm months (Lauenroth & Sala, 1992; Lauenroth & Burke, 2008). While most rain events are small (83% are ≤ 10 mm), these account for only 41% of total growing season rainfall; therefore, infrequent large rain events are important in this ecosystem and can be identified from long-term precipitation records such as this dataset. Precipitation amounts from 30 manual rain gauges distributed across the site from May thru September are usually recorded within 24 hours of a rain event. Data were verified with cross-validation of records contained in the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP, 1980-present). An additional processed dataset is included, for which the authors identified isolated summer (June-September) deluge events. They define a deluge as a statistically large event size that exceeds the 90th percentile based on the long-term precipitation record (Post & Knapp, 2021). For this analysis, they summed precipitation from rain events that co-occurred temporally (typically over 2-4 days) and considered these as single deluge events.
Temporal Extent Start Date
1983-05-01
Temporal Extent End Date
2013-09-30
Theme
Not specified
Geographic Coverage
Geographic location - description
Central Plains Experimental Range is a ~6400 ha Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network site in northeast Colorado, USA (40˚50’N, 104˚43’W, 1645 m above sea level))
Hoover, David L.; Post, Alison; Frasier, Gary W.; Augustine, David J.; Derner, Justin D. (2021). Semiarid grasslands and extreme precipitation events: Do experimental results scale to the landscape?. Ag Data Commons. https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1522610