The Sevilleta Meteorological Network: Enhancing and expanding technological infrastructure to assess climate variability in dryland ecosystems

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This project will improve weather monitoring in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SevNWR) through the enhancement and expansion of the Sevilleta Meteorological Network (SevMET). Established in 1988 and operated by the University of New Mexico's Sevilleta Field Station (SevFS; http://sevfs.unm.edu/), SevMET is a spatially-distributed network of meteorological stations that spans multiple dryland ecosystems representative of the southwestern US. Climate governs many aspects of dryland ecosystems. Thus, a network of spatially representative, high resolution, comprehensive meteorological stations is essential to supporting drylands research. SevFS provides logistical support to a variety of researchers and educators, ranging from K-12 students and teachers to undergraduate and graduate students to senior scientists from around the world. Improvements to SevMET will promote understanding of dryland ecosystems by providing important supporting data needed for research projects conducted in the SevNWR, such as the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research program. All data will be made freely available via the SevFS website, as well as through the New Mexico Climate Center and MesoWest, both of which provide climate and weather data to the general public. Dryland ecosystems occupy ~45% of the terrestrial land surface and account for ~40% of global net primary production. Ecosystem processes in drylands are strongly regulated by climatic drivers that are highly variable in space and time, both within and among years. Therefore, accurate measurement of weather and climate is fundamental to understanding how dryland ecosystems respond to seasonal and annual changes in rainfall and temperature. The enhanced and expanded SevMET will consist of fifteen comprehensive weather stations distributed across the SevNWR. These data will serve as important variables for long-term observational and experimental studies to help explain how and why dryland ecosystems differ in space and change over time. Ongoing and new research in the SevNWR will be significantly improved by these enhancements that will more accurately quantify climate variability in these ecologically important dryland ecosystems. These improvements will also strengthen existing training and educational opportunities supported by SevFS, including the Sevilleta Research Experience for Undergraduates Program, which has a strong record of training minority undergraduate students. Also, enhancing research infrastructure will benefit the Methods in Environmental Data Acquisition summer course, which attracts an international cohort of technicians, students, post-doctoral fellows, and early career faculty, through a unique field-based training opportunity in the design, deployment, and maintenance of environmental sensor networks. Finally, weather data generated by these meteorological stations will also be used to develop classroom exercises for K-12 students and teachers associated with the Schoolyard Long-term Ecological Research program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.