Weather and Climate Inventory, National Park Service, Southern Colorado Plateau Network
Davey CA, Redmond KA, Simeral DB. 2006. Weather and Climate Inventory, National Park Service, Southern Colorado Plateau Network. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SCPN/NRTR—2006/007. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Climate drives many of the environmental processes in the Southern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network (SCPN). Climate variations are responsible for short and long-term changes in ecosystem fluxes of energy and matter and they have profound effects on underlying geomorphic and biogeochemical processes. Future changes in climate will, in turn, have tremendous impacts on these processes. Monitoring climate facilitates interpretation of other vital sign measurements. Efforts to manage various native plant and animal species in the SCPN, and the control of invasive species, are very sensitive to both short-term and long-term climate variations. The region covered by theSCPN is influenced by drought and other interannual climate variations such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and variations in the strength of the summer monsoon. The responses of the SCPN landscape to these climate variations highlight the region’s sensitivity to possible future climate changes. Climate changes could also adversely affect the important cultural resources protected by SCPN park units. For thesereasons, climate was identified as a high-priority vital sign for SCPN and climate is one of the 12 basic inventories to be completed for all Inventory and Monitoring Parks. Because of the importance of climate to almost every aspect of both ecology and park management, this project was initiated to inventory past and present climate monitoring efforts. The primary objective of climate and weather monitoring for the SCPN is to provide monthly and annual summaries of climate data, including precipitation and temperature, and determine long-term trends in seasonal and annual patterns of climate parameters and soil moisture.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Davey, C; Redmond, K; Simeral, D
- Date of Issue
- 2006
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- AZRU , BAND , CACH , CHCU , CLI , ELMA , ELMO , GLCA , GRCA , HUTR , MEVE , NAVA , NRSS , PEFO , PETR , RABR , SAPU , SCPN , SUCR , WACA , WUPA , YUHO
- Keywords
- Aesthetics, Climate, Climate change detection, Colorado River Basin, Four Corners region, Parameter regression on independent slopes model (PRISM), Precipitation, Spatial variability, Temperature, Temporal variability, Weather, WRCC-Report