HR: 0800h
AN: H31C-0395 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Flathead River Basin Hydrologic Observatory, Northern Rocky Mountains
AU: * Woessner, W W
EM: william.woessner@umontana.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Running, S W
EM: swr@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Potts, D F
EM: dpotts@forestry.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Kimball, J S
EM: johnk@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Deluca, T H
EM: ; thd@forestry.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Fagre, D B
EM: dan_fagre@usgs.gov
AF: USGS Science Center, Glacier National Park, West Glacier, MT 59936 United States
AU: Makepeace, S
EM: sethm@cskt.org
AF: Confederated Salish Koontenai Tribes, P.O. Box 278, Pablo, MT 59855
AU: Hendrix, M S
EM: marc@selway.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Lorang, M S
EM: mark.lorang@umontana.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: Ellis, B K
EM: bonnie.ellis@umontana.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AU: LaFave, J
EM: JLaFave@mtech.edu
AF: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Montana Tech of the Universtiy of Montana, Butte, MT 59701 United States
AU: Harper, J
EM: joel@mso.umt.edu
AF: University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812 United States
AB: We are proposing the 22, 515 km2 glacially-sculpted Flathead River Basin located in Montana and British Columbia as a Hydrologic Observatory. This hydrologic landscape is diverse and includes large pristine watersheds, rapidly developing intermountain valleys, and a 95 km2 regulated reservoir and 510 km2 lake. The basin has a topographic gradient of over 2,339 m, and spans high alpine to arid climatic zones and a range of biomes. Stream flows are snow-melt dominated and underpinned by groundwater baseflow. The site headwaters contain 37 glaciers and thousands of square kilometers of watersheds in which fire and disease are the only disturbances. In contrast, the HO also contains watersheds at multiple scales that were dominated by glaciers within the last 100 years but are now glacier free, impacted by timber harvests and fires of varying ages to varying degrees, modified by water management practices including irrigation diversion and dams, and altered by development for homes, cities and agriculture. This Observatory provides a sensitive monitor of historic and future climatic shifts, air shed influences and impacts, and the consequences of land and water management practices on the hydrologic system. The HO watersheds are some of the only pristine watersheds left in the contiguous U.S.. They provide critical habitat for key species including the native threaten bull trout and lynx, and the listed western cutthroat trout, bald eagle, gray wolf and the grizzly bear. For the last several thousand years this system has been dominated by snow-melt runoff and moderated by large quantities of water stored in glacial ice. However, the timing and magnitude of droughts and summer flows have changed dramatically. With the information that can be gleaned from sediment cores and landscape records at different scales, this HO provides scientists with opportunities to establish baseline watershed conditions and data on natural hydrologic variability within the system. Such a context frames the current and further observations and assists with translating measured changes into links with the varied HO ecosystems.
DE: 1824 Geomorphology (1625)
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1860 Runoff and streamflow
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting