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Title: Sediment database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States 1853

Author
item Nichols, Mary
item Stone, Jeffry
item Nearing, Mark

Submitted to: Water Resources Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/16/2007
Publication Date: 2/26/2008
Citation: Nichols, M.H., Stone, J.J., Nearing, M.A. 2008. Sediment database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States. Water Resources Research. Vol. 44, W05S06, doi:10.1029/2006WR005682.

Interpretive Summary: The American Geophysical Union has a new thrust to make high-quality data available for research by publishing metadata for a data set that will be available on the web in an AGU-approved web site. This is one of a set of thirteen manuscripts describing data from fifty years of research and data collection at the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in southeast Arizona, USA. This manuscript describes sediment data collected on the WGEW. Sampling instruments and techniques are described, including the traversing slot sediment sampler, pump samplers on both v-notch weirs and H-flumes, and sedimentation surveys of stock tanks. Sediment data are used by scientists and others to understand erosion and sedimentation processes within semiarid rangeland watersheds. Data are available via the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southwest Watershed Research Center at http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/dap/.

Technical Abstract: Improving the scientific understanding of erosion and sedimentation processes within semiarid rangeland watersheds has been a primary objective of data collection on the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed since it's establishment in 1953. Sampling instruments and techniques are described, including the traversing slot sediment sampler, pump samplers on both v-notch weirs and H-flumes, and sedimentation surveys of stock tanks. Sediment collected at the outlets of seven small watersheds and long-term data collected through stock tank sedimentation surveys at eight sites dating from the 1950s are described. Data are available at http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/dap/