ABSTRACT:

The following standard operating procedure (SOP) was created for the the Aquatic Intermittency effects on Microbiomes in Streams (AIMS), an NSF EPSCoR funded project (OIA 2019603) seeking to explore the impacts of stream drying on downstream water quality across Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Idaho, and Mississippi. AIMS integrates datasets on hydrology, microbiomes, macroinvertebrates, and biogeochemistry in three regions (Mountain West, Great Plains, and Southeast Forests) to test the overarching hypothesis that physical drivers (e.g., climate, hydrology) interact with biological drivers (e.g., microbes, biogeochemistry) to control water quality in intermittent streams. An overview of the AIMS project can be found here: https://youtu.be/HDKIBNEnwdM
This protocol will describe the process of installing the water quality sensors (YSI EXO2 and s::can spectro::lyser) in the field. The installation and use of these sensors is for multi-year time series data (Approach 1).

ABSTRACT:

The following standard operating procedure (SOP) was created for the the Aquatic Intermittency effects on Microbiomes in Streams (AIMS), an NSF EPSCoR funded project (OIA 2019603) seeking to explore the impacts of stream drying on downstream water quality across Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Idaho, and Mississippi. AIMS integrates datasets on hydrology, microbiomes, macroinvertebrates, and biogeochemistry in three regions (Mountain West, Great Plains, and Southeast Forests) to test the overarching hypothesis that physical drivers (e.g., climate, hydrology) interact with biological drivers (e.g., microbes, biogeochemistry) to control water quality in intermittent streams. An overview of the AIMS project can be found here: https://youtu.be/HDKIBNEnwdM.

This protocol details the process for measuring streamflow within the stream network focused largely on low-flow conditions using dilution gaging techniques.

Also included in this resource is the AIMS datasheet used when taking measurements in the field.

The "living" version of this SOP is available on Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18mvs_aAr677eQDrwUuassMTWmjggSQxVkmkr0vgF0J4/edit?tab=t.0

From this SOP, the following data types will be created: stream width, depth, discharge (AIMS rTypes created: ENVI, DISC).

ABSTRACT:

This study was conducted on the South Fork of the Kings Creek research watershed (outlet location: 39.092281, -96.58719) within Konza Prairie Biological Station (KBPS) near Manhattan (KS, USA). At the USGS gage located on the mainstem (06879560; est. 1979), Kings Creek is a 5th order intermittent stream draining 1059-ha of tallgrass prairie that is actively managed using controlled buns at varying frequencies (1-20 year return intervals) and grazing by bison or cattle. Kings Creek ranges in elevation from 338 to 430 m above sea level and drains into the Kansas River. The region is within a midwestern continental climate, with temperatures ranging from 4 to 22°C and mean annual precipitation averaging about 780 mm/yr.

This site lies within the Flint Hills ecoregion of eastern KS and northeastern OK, has a mean annual temperature of 11.7ºC (1983-2020), and 811 mm annual precipitation (1983-2020) with high interannual variability and an estimated 75% of annual precipitation occurring during late spring and early summer (Hayden 1998, Sadayappan et al. 2023). The AIMS study catchment, the South Fork of Kings Creek, is grazed by bison year-round, and includes sub-catchments with variable prescribed burn history, but the entire study area was burned in early April 2021. The riparian vegetation is deciduous gallery forest and the highest portion of the landscape is tallgrass prairie (Dodds et al. 2004) dominated by warm-season grasses, though woody encroachment has occurred in most subwatersheds (Sadayappan et al. 2023)*. The underlying bedrock of the Flint Hills ecotone is characterized as limestone, mudstone, and shale with predominately silty clay loam soils that rest atop (Hayden 1998, Vero et al. 2018).

This resource contains the YSI field data from AIMS approaches 1 (maintenance samples ~every 3 weeks), 2 (seasonal sampling), and 3 (syntopic sampling event) samplings at King's Creek. During sampling, a YSI Pro1030 Waterproof Handheld meter was placed in the stream and numbers were allowed to stabilize while water sampling took place. Data is not available when the site was dry - as noted by the flow_state column. In addition, some sampling events lacked a YSI handheld and data is therefore missing.

ABSTRACT:

This dataset includes the HUC12 IDs of 82,312 HUC12s across the contiguous United States and an assigned "headwater type"/cluster ID derived from k-means clustering of this publicly available USGS dataset: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/67fffc34d4be020983ea0055.

ABSTRACT:

Shane Creek, located north of Kings Creek in the Konza Prairie Biological Station (outlet location: 39.11522, -96.55838), is a native tallgrass prairie that experiences cattle grazing and burning every 1-2 years.

These data were collected in support of the sampling goals of the Aquatic Intermittency effects on Microbiomes in Streams (AIMS) Project. 7 pressure transducers were placed in surface water monitoring wells along the Shane Creek watershed, as well as an additional pressure transducer hanging from a tree at the watershed outlet to collect barometric pressure. These pressure transducers collected data from 2023 through 2024. These nested well locations monitored water level continuously throughout the project, as well as served as the AIMS approach 2 sampling locations, where a field team co-collected datasets characterizing the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology across seven locations within the watershed.

These sensors were set to collect temperature and pressure data every 15 minutes starting from 2023 through 2024. The raw pressure data were converted to water level using barometric pressure data and surveyed elevation data. Each .csv file is associated with a single sensor for a single year.

For additional details see the AIMS_GP_SHN_PRESdata_ReadME.xlsx file.

ABSTRACT:

Youngmeyer Ranch is located in Elk County, KS (outlet location: 37.56442, -96.49106) and managed by Witchita State University and owned by the Youngmeyer Trust. The ranch is roughly 1902 ha of grassland prairie used predominantly for cattle grazing and is burned every 1-2 years. A tributary of the Elk River, specifically the south branch of the Elk River headwaters, elevation at Youngmeyer ranges from 373-488 m with mean annual temperature of 13.7°C and mean annual precipitation of 979mm. This site is geologically constructed of Permian age limestone and shale with layers of chert below silty clay loam soils (Houseman et al. 2016). This site is predominantly grassland composed of the same dominant grasses as Konza Prairie, with scattered black oaks (Q. veluntina) along the creeks (Houseman et al. 2016).

These data were collected in support of the sampling goals of the Aquatic Intermittency effects on Microbiomes in Streams (AIMS) Project. 14 pressure transducers were placed in seven sets of nested groundwater and surface water monitoring wells along the Youngmeyer watershed,as well as an additional pressure transducer hanging from a tree at the watershed outlet to collect barometric pressure throughout sites in the watershed. These pressure transducers collected data from 2021 through 2024. These nested well locations monitored water level continuously throughout the project, as well as served as the AIMS approach 2 sampling locations, where a field team co-collected datasets characterizing the hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology across seven locations within the watershed.

These sensors were set to collect temperature and pressure data every 15 minutes starting from 2021 through 2024. The raw pressure data were converted to water level using barometric pressure data and surveyed elevation data. Each .csv file is associated with a single sensor for a single year.

For more information, see the AIMS_GP_YMR_PRESdata_ReadME.xlsx file in the resource.