The research team aims to reconstruct Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) snowpack using sea surface temperatures (SST) variability and tree-ring chronologies. The researchers hypothesize that by using SSTs, a complete representation of ocean-atmosphere variability can be achieved. The researchers will also use Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to identify coupled regions of Pacific and Atlantic Ocean SSTs and UCRB snowpack and, hence, regional hydrologic variability.
The primary broader impacts involve supporting a graduate student, disseminating research results on an established public website, and working with public and private stakeholders in the water resource arena.
The goal of the research was to utilize climate signals such as El Nino / La Nina in combination with tree ring proxies to develop and improve reconstruction skill of hydrologic variables (snowpack, soil moisture) in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Water managers and planners are faced with making decisions on water allocation based on observed records. Many times, these observed records are short in record. Thus, managers and planners will benefit from having longer periods of record that results from reconstructing these variables. The reconstructions identify dry (drought) and wet periods not identified in observed records and provide a great benefit to stakeholders and users. We successfully developed reconstructions of snowpack and soil moisture in the Upper Colorado River Basin and we encourage interested individuals to obtain and review the publications below. Our research team consisted of the PI (Dr. Glenn Tootle), Co PI (Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer, Lead PhD Student (Dr. SallyRose Anderson) and four undergraduate students (Ebony Lemons, James Ensley, Angela Pelle and Shayna Chapman). Each of the students who participated in this research are recognized as being from underrepresented groups in Engineering. Thus, our research efforts provided training to a broad and diverse group of students. Additionally, the students participated in the collection of tree ring data in New Mexico and attended the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, presenting results from this research. The research supported Dr. SallyRose Anderson to complete her masters and PhD degrees. Dr. Anderson lead-authored three core publications which acknowledged this award as the sole sponsorship: Anderson, S., G. Tootle, and H. Grissino-Mayer, 2012a. Reconstructions of Soil Moisture for the Upper Colorado River Basin using Tree-Ring Chronologies, 2012. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 48(4):849-858. Anderson, S., O. Aziz, G. Tootle, H. Grissino-Mayer and A. Barnett, 2012b. Using Pacific Ocean Climatic Variability to Improve Hydrologic Reconstructions. Journal of Hydrology, 434:69–77. Anderson, S., C. Moser, G.A. Tootle, H.D. Grissino-Mayer, J. Timilsena and T. Piechota, 2012c. Snowpack Reconstructions Incorporating Climate in the Upper Green River Basin (Wyoming). Tree Ring Research, 68(2):105-144. Additionally, the following presentations were made that acknowledged this award: Tootle, G., S. Anderson and H. Grissino-Mayer, 2012. Reconstructions of Soil Moisture for the Upper Colorado River Basin using Tree Ring Chronologies. Presentation at American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, December 3-7, 2012, San Francisco, California. Pelle, A., S. Chapman, S. Anderson, A. Oubeidallah, G. Tootle and H. Grissino-Mayer, 2012. Climatic Drivers of Upper Colorado River Basin Dendrochronologic and Hydrologic Datasets. Presentation at American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, December 3-7, 2012, San Francisco, California. Anderson, S., G. Tootle, O. Aziz, C. Moser, and H. Grissino-Mayer, 2011. Reconstructions of Upper Green River Basin Snowpack Using Pacific Ocean Climatic Variability. Presentation at American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, December 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, California. This award was acknowledged as providing partial support to the following publications: Ayub, R., S. Anderson, G.A. Tootle, and H.Grissino-Mayer. Reconstructions of Snowpack, Streamflow, and Soil Moisture in the North Platte River Basin. Tree Ring Research. In-Review. Marks, J., J. Piburn, G. Tootle, G. Kerr, and A. Oubeidallah, 2013. Case Study: Estimates of Glacier Mass Loss and Contribution to Streamflow in the Wind River Range (Wyoming, USA). American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, In-Review. Acharya, A., T. Piechota, and G. Tootle, 2012. Quantitative Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the Hydrology of the North Platte River Watershed, Wyoming. American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 17:1071-1083. Bell, J., G. Tootle, G. Kerr, L. Pochop and R. Sivanpillai, 2012. Glacier Impacts on Summer Streamflow in the Wind River Range, Wyoming, USA. American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 17(4):521-527. Edmunds, J., G. Tootle, G. Kerr, R. Sivanpillai and L. Pochop, 2012. Glacier Variability (1967-2006) in the Teton Range, Wyoming, USA. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 48(1):187-196. Oubeidillah, A.A., G.A. Tootle and S. Anderson, 2012. Atlantic Ocean Sea Surface Temperatures and Adour Garonne (France) Regional Streamflow Variability. Journal of Hydrological Sciences, 57(3):496 – 506. Acharya, A., T. Piechota, H. Stephen and G. Tootle, 2011. Modeled Streamflow Response Under Weather Modification in the North Platte River Watershed. Journal of Hydrology, 409(1-2):305-314. Thompson, D., G. Tootle, G. Kerr, R. Sivanpillai and L. Pochop, 2011. Glacier Variability in the Wind River Range, Wyoming, USA. American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 16(10):798-805.
