Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Atmospheric deposition working group meets in Oregon

The LTER synthesis working group on quantifying uncertainty in wet atmospheric deposition convened last week in Oregon.   Participants met May 21-23 at HJ Andrews Experimental Forest to share current research and coordinate future efforts.  The first day included presentations on long-term collection of deposition data, variability in monsoon precipitation (Sevilleta LTER), uncertainty in data gap filling, a hierarchical Bayesian analysis of precipitation patterns, and an analysis of monitoring intensity.  Presentations were followed up with discussion and planning sessions.

The following day included a presentation by Dr. Chris Daly (OSU) on the PRISM model, and the uncertainties associated with large-scale spatiotemporal precipitation estimates and predictions.  The rest of the time was devoted to planning papers and future workshops.  Products coming out of this meeting will include a paper on uncertainty sources in unreplicated measurements (small watersheds), a paper on the effects of monitoring intensity on uncertainty, and a paper on gap filling in long-term hydrologic datasets.  Also coming out of this meeting are plans to host a workshop on uncertainty in ecosystem studies at this year’s LTER All Scientists Meeting in September (more on this when the date is confirmed).  After discussing precipitation for two days, participants were given a rainy tour of HJ Andrews Experimental Forest.

People in attendance: Dr. John Campbell (USFS), Dr. Ruth Yanai (SUNY-ESF), Dr. Shannon LaDeau (Cary Institute), Doug Moore (Sevilleta LTER), Adam Skibbe (Konza LTER), Craig See (SUNY-ESF)
Attending remotely (via video conference call): Dr. Kathleen Weathers (Cary Institute), Mathew Petrie (University of New Mexico), Dr. Mark Green (Plymouth State), Stephanie Laseter (USFS), Dr. Jennifer Knoepp (USFS), Carrie Rose Levine (SUNY-ESF)
Precipitation working group (left to right): John Campbell, Shannon Ladeau, Ruth Yanai, Doug Moore, Craig See