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Sierra Nevada Research
Institute mission
Foster interdisciplinary research that focuses on the
Sierra Nevada eco-region, including the Central
Valley & other adjacent areas.
Facilitate synergistic links between science, the arts,
education & natural resource management.
Themes in the SNRI strategic plan
Climate & water
Ecology & ecosystem science
Air pollution & public health
Environmental economics, policy & management
SNRI research within UC Merced
$15 M in research grants to
SNRI faculty since campus
opened
Current SNRI faculty
Andres Aguilar - evolutionary & conservation biology
Roger Bales - mountain climate, hydrology & biogeochemistry, polar snow & ice
Yihsu Chen - environmental economics
Martha Conklin - biogeochemistry, groundwater, K-12 environmental education
Michael Dawson - evolution & ecology
Benoit Dayrat – ecology
Phil Duffy - global climate change, climate modeling
Henry Forman - lung-particulate interactions
Qinghua Guo - remote sensing, geocomputation, landscape ecology
Tom Harmon - contanminant hydrology, environmental sensor development
Kathleen Hull - anthropological archaeology
Shawn Kantor – economics
Lara Kueppers - climate-ecosystem feedbacks, regional climate change
Valerie Leppert - electron microscopy, nanomaterials
Peggy O’Day - mineral-aqueous geochemistry
Wolfgang Rogge – air pollution, organic aerosols
Samuel Traina - chemistry of solids & natural waters
Christopher Viney – bioengineering
Tony Westerling - environmental policy
Jeff Wright - water resources systems
SNRI research within UC Merced
Grant amounts since inception of UC Merced, as of Sept. 2007
Category
Amount, thousand
Percent
Extramural grants
$38,551
Research grantsa
$25,915
100
Research grants to SNRI faculty
$15,285
59
aExcluding
grants for education, small business, etc. to non-faculty
Strategy for UCM-SNRI field stations
SNRI main area of interest
for developing new field
facilities
SNRI field
facilities &
research sites
Last Chance
NRS
PSW exp forest
UC exp forest
UCM station
(incl. proposed)
UCM research
TPR
Aim is to build
transects of
instrumented sites
along gradients of
latitude & elevation
Link with common
cyberinfrastructure
for data capture,
archiving & serving
Fish Camp
Wawona
NEON
SJV
SJER
KREW
SEKI
Sierra Nevada field
facilities & research
sites showing national
forests & parks
Last Chance
NRS
PSW exp fores
UC exp forest
UCM station
UCM research
TPR
Fish Camp
Wawona
NEON
SJV
SJER
KREW
SEKI
Prototype instrument cluster: Wolverton,
Sequoia National Park
Priority: make research station more
permanent, upgrade work space & lodging
Kaweah River, Three Rivers
Priority: acquire site in cooperation w/
conservation groups & establish
permanent station as per cooperative
agreement w/ Sequoia NP
Kings River Experimental Watersheds:
USFS/PSW research site
KREW is site for NSF Critical Zone
Observatory & NEON gradient site
San Joaquin Experimental Range,
USFS/PSW & NEON core site
The Central Valley
Current thinking is to develop natural reserve
access sites along elevational gradients in
Central & southern Sierra Nevada – both Tulare
& San Joaquin basins
Campus reserve
Wolverton basin & meadow instrumentation
Current research : Develop strategies that integrate remote sensing &
ground-based measurements with state-of-the-art models to achieve
accurate estimates of snowpack, snowmelt & the partitioning of snowmelt
into runoff, infiltration & evapotranspiration.
Research plan
1. Establish & maintain ground-based instrument clusters
2. Develop remotely sensed data for mountain snowcover &
vegetation
3. Calibrate & evaluate advanced hydrologic model
4. Estimate spatial water balance components
5. Simulate climate & hydrology
Stream stage &
discharge
Five pressure
transducers installed in
summer 2006
Wolverton
meteorological stations
Two stations installed in
fall 2006, at Wolverton
& Panther Meadow
Soil moisture & temperature
Four locations
Three pits per location
Four depths per pit
Snow depth sensors
Four locations
10 per locations
One over each soil pit
Meadow piezometers & wells
Three lateral transects &
one longitudinal transect
Continuous logging
Soil matric potential
Transect in meadow, in line
with piezometers
Sequoia National Park as a platform for
world-class research & education