Patrick Mulholland Environmental Sciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory P.O. Box 2008 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036 mulhollandpj@ornl.gov
This NEON RFI response is for Part 3: Core Wildland Sites in NEON Domain 7 (Appalachians/Cumberland Plateau). Domain 7 is particularly relevant to NEON questions related to how climate, invasive species, land use, and N deposition interact as major drivers of forest ecosystems. We propose one central core site for intensive instrument deployment (Walker Branch Watershed: 98 ha, 35.574N, 84.1656W) and experimental set-aside areas (the 13,406 ha Oak Ridge Reservation which includes Walker Branch Watershed as well as numerous other forested catchments). Within Domain 7 this site offers the optimum combination of climate and vegetation (oak dominated forest), land available for experimental set-asides and capacity for supporting manipulative experiments, access and security for 30+ years, breadth of ongoing and historical research, facilities, road and power access, and the availability of housing nearby. Walker Branch Watershed (WBW) has a number of facilities of relevance to NEON and ongoing monitoring of climate, hydrology, input-output chemical budgets, soil chemistry, and vegetation composition and biomass. WBW has been the site of many research studies (including tracer experiments) on the hydrology, biogeochemistry and ecology of forest and stream ecosystems. The Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) lies in the Ridge and Valley Geophysical Province in eastern Tennessee and has a climate representative of much of Domain 7. ORR vegetation is typical of that throughout most of the domain, including large areas of oak-dominated forests and smaller areas of old fields, portions of which will be designated as experimental set-aside areas. The ORR is adjacent to a large TVA reservoir (Melton Hill Lake) and is drained by numerous low-order streams. ESRI shapefiles of the ORR and WBW are included with this response.
We propose five additional satellite/gradient sites for deployment of the relocatable instrument platforms: Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory (COW, WS14 - 35.034/83.264 and WS27 - 35.02/83.28), Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSM, Little Bottoms - 35.610/83.912 and McKee Branch - 35.590/83.094), Mountain Lake Biological Station (MLB, 37.38/80.52), Miami University Ecology Center (MUE, 39.32/84.50), and Hancock Biological Station (HBS, Panther Creek - 36.294/87.593). These sites are intended to span domain gradients in temperature, precipitation, and vegetation maturity, all within the dominant wildland vegetation type present in Domain 7 - deciduous forests dominated by oak. These sites also have considerable ongoing research and available facilities for supporting NEON. Two of these sites (COW, GSM) encompass a large range in elevation and we recommend that these sites include two locations, one at low elevation (< 600 m) and another at higher elevation (> 1000 m), for platform deployment in alternate 2-year periods. COW is an LTER site with considerable ongoing research and monitoring, while GSM is the most visited National Park with an extensive Inventory and Monitoring Program. Two sites (GSM, MUE) have areas of old growth forest that will allow an assessment of the effects of vegetation maturity. Finally, the other two satellite sites (MLB and HBS) represent low temperature (MLB, annual average air temperature of 8.4ºC) and western, high temperature (HBS, annual average air temperature of 14.2ºC) end-members within Domain 7.