paf_721_759 ChelseaWilmerColorado State Universitychelsea.f.wilmer@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5244-4824 HeidiSteltzerFort Lewis Collegesteltzer_h@fortlewis.eduhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5199-9932 U.S. DOE > Office of Science > Biological and Environmental Research (BER) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100006206 fundingOrganization 2021 This dataset includes observations of plant phenology at five locations along an elevation gradient in Crested Butte, Colorado. Observations occurred over the years 2017 and 2018. Observations taken in 2018 are associated with an experimental early snowmelt manipulation. The file PhenologyData_complete.txt contains raw data of phenology observations for each year, at each site, for each species within 1mX1m subplots. The file Phenology Data Package.docx contains information about sites, plots, and plant phenophases. These observations were taken to assess the temporal impact of early snowmelt perturbations on plant growth in the East River Valley. These data can be used to inform when and where plants may be using water resources throughout the season and how the phenology of plant communities in the watershed may respond to early snowmelt. phenology plant phenology snowmelt elevation gradientCATEGORICAL:NONEPhenologyVARIABLE:NONE

Additional metadata on specific locations within the watershed are provided in the following related data package:Varadharajan C ; Kakalia Z ; Banfield J ; Berkelhammer M ; Brodie E ; Christianson D ; Dafflon B ; Carbone M S ; Carroll R ; Chadwick K D ; Christensen J ; Enquist B J ; Fox P ; Henderson M ; Gochis D ; Kueppers L ; Powell T ; Matheus Carnevali P ; Singha K ; Sorensen P ; Tokunaga T ; Versteeg R ; Wilkins M ; Williams K ; Worsham M ; Wu Y ; Agarwal D (2020): Location Identifiers, Metadata, and Map for Field Measurements at the East River Watershed, Colorado, USA. Watershed Function SFA. doi:10.15485/1660962

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 2017-05-012018-10-01 The East River (ER) is a snow‐dominated, headwater basin of the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) located in the western United States. The ER is the designated testbed of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (WFSFA). Through WFSFA, observational networks have been established to measure stream discharge and precipitation chemistry. The ER is considered representative of many snow‐dominated headwaters of the Rocky Mountains. The study domain encompasses nearly 85 square km, a 1.4‐km vertical drop in elevation (4,120 to 2,760 m) and pristine alpine, subalpine, montane, and riparian ecosystems. The ER contains high‐energy mountain streams to low‐energy meandering floodplains and is eroding primarily into the Cretaceous, carbon‐rich, marine shale of the Mancos Formation. Additional metadata on specific locations within the watershed are provided in the following related data package: Varadharajan C. et al. (2020) doi:10.15485/1660962 -107.05-106.8839.03438.88 HeidiSteltzerFort Lewis Collegesteltzer_h@fortlewis.eduhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5199-9932 The five sites were established along an elevation gradient from 2774m to 3597m. Four out of the five sites included an experimental early snowmelt manipulation in 2018. At each site, six 10mX14m plots were laid out and grouped into pairs, one designated as an experimental early snowmelt plot and one designated as a control plot. At the highest site it was impossible to implement a snowmelt manipulation due to dangerous access in the spring and avalanche risk; this site was purely observational and included three 10mX14m plots. Each 10mX14m plot included two 1mX1m subplots where all species were cataloged. One subplot was primarily meadow vegetation (excluding sagebrush) and one subplot was primarily shrub vegetation (including sagebrush). Once plots were established phenology observations began. Phenophases that were observed included New Leaves, Full Leaf Expansion, First Open Flower, and Full Leaf Color Change. All sites were visited for observations directly following snowmelt. Following snowmelt, sites were visited between 2 and 3 times a week (more during early spring to summer, less after most individuals had flowered). When any one individual of a species within a subplot changed from one phase to the next the date was taken for that phenophase. Susan Hubbard Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory sshubbard@lbl.gov Principal Investigator DOE:DEAC0205CH11231 (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) PhenologyData_complete.txt text/plain Phenology Data Package.pdf application/pdf