Site Number/Name: Jornada Basin LTER (JRN)

 

GFL No.:

                                            

Name:                                 

State, Country: New Mexico, USA 

 

Priority: 1

 

Site designation(s): LTER, MAB

 

Other sponsoring/interested agencies, if any: New Mexico State University; USDA ARS Jornada Experimental Range; Duke University, NC; NOAA, Research Triangle Park, NC; University of New Mexico; Dartmouth College, NH; Oregon Graduate Center; Texas Technological University; SUNY Buffalo, NY: University of Leicester, UK; Kings College, London, UK; EPA-EMAP, Las Vegas, NV

 

Location and size:  Las Cruces, New Mexico

 

USGS Quad:                                                     

 

Center: 32.5, -106.8

 

NE corner:

SE corner:

SW corner:

NW corner:

 

UTM (NAD27)

UL - 310000   3635000

 

LR - 360000   3588000

                                            

Center elevation:

 

Size (N-S x E-W): The USDA Jornada Experimental Range has an area of 78,266 hectares. The NMSU Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center has an area of 25,900 hectares.  This creates a block of 104,166 hectares devoted to LTER research.

 

 

 

Resource to be monitored:            

Desertification; factors affecting primary production; animal-induced soil disturbances; direct and indirect consumer effects; vertebrate and invertebrate population dynamics; grazing effects on ecosystem structure and function; biodiversity and ecosystem function; small mammal effects on soil and vegetation heterogeneity; soil microbial processes; surface hydrology; trace gas emissions from soils; eolian processes. 

 

Detailed description, management issues (e.g. ecosystem represented):

Hot desert - Playa, piedmont, and swale; bajada, basin, mountain and swale shrubland; mesquite dunes

 

Frequency and time(s) of collection:     [six-week window]

                                                           

Resolution/scale:

 

Special characteristics (spectral values, thermal anomalies, underwater/ground, etc.):

 

Existing maps of area (digital?): GIS data

Online at http://jornada.nmsu.edu/gis-rs/gis/gis_frm.htm

 

 

 

 

MEDEA sponsor (active/passive):         

 

Sponsoring agency:                                  National Science Foundation (NSF)

 

NSF agency point of contact:                  [Alan M. Gaines, Scott L. Collins]

 

NSF site point of contact (current security clearance, if any):

 

               [John Vande Castle,  Security Clearance- YES