CALIFORNIA BIODIVERSITY CENTER
2001-2002 FISCAL YEAR REPORT
PREPARED BY
MARY E. POWER, DIRECTOR
And
JOHN LATTO, ACADEMIC COORDINATOR
with field station reports from
JEFF BROWN
DIRECTOR, SAGEHEN FIELD STATION
AND
RANDALL OSTERHUBER
CENTRAL SIERRA SNOW LABORATORY
Unit Mission and Activities
The California Biodiversity Center (CBC, http://cbc@socrates.berkeley.edu), a new
organized research unit, fosters collaborations between the Berkeley Natural History Museums,
Berkeley's Natural History Field Stations, and other partners studying changes in California's
biological diversity, past, present, and future. Biological populations in California and elsewhere
can change unexpectedly with dramatic consequences, both biological and economic. We see
an exotic weed, present at low densities for decades following its introduction, suddenly explode
as a noxious pest (e.g., yellow star thistle); sudden oak death and other pathogens threaten
tanoaks, coast live oaks, madrones, redwoods, and Monterey pines; a native frog population (e.g.
mountain yellow legged frog) thriving in one watershed but dwindling or disappearing in another,
apparently similar habitat. In all of these cases, ecological change, evolutionary (genetic)
change, or both could account for the change in the species' performance and impact.
Interactions of genetic and ecological change probably drive many changes in biodiversity and
environments, yet such interactions go widely unrecognized because of the lack of collaboration
between scientists familiar with museum-based, historical approaches and field ecologists and
earth scientists using field observations and experiments to investigate contemporary processes.
Such collaborations are fostered by the CBC.
The CBC's affiliated partners include Berkeley's Natural History Museums and Field
Stations (Table 1). The field stations provide protected areas that serve as "living laboratories,"
where researchers can investigate the on-going processes that are currently influencing biological
diversity. The museums’ vast collections and databases add geographic breadth and historical
depth to our understanding of processes that can control biodiversity--processes that begin with
the geologic origin of California and range in time scale from the splitting of species lineages to
changes within a single generation. Combining these two invaluable types of resources
enhances the abilities of CBC researchers to evaluate the relative roles of climate, evolution,
human impacts, and new pathogens in changing distributions, abundances, and genomes of key
species over time.
Table 1. Affiliated partners of the California Biodiversity Center
Berkeley Natural History Museums
Berkeley Natural History Field Stations
University of California Museum of Paleontology
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
University of California Botanical Garden
Essig Museum of Entomology
University and Jepson Herbaria
Hearst Museum of Anthropology
Angelo Coast Range Reserve
Hastings Natural History Reservation
Hans Jenny Pygmy Forest Reserve
Chickering-American River Reserve
Sagehen Creek Field Station
Sierra Snow Lab
CBC Activities, 2001-2002:
The CBC co-sponsored, with the Berkeley Natural History Museums, a Public Lecture
Series at U.C. Berkeley in 2001. Speakers were Dr. Graham Chisholm, Director of the California
Nature Conservancy, Prof. Kent Lightfoot, an archaeologist at Berkeley who studies Native
Californians, particularly coastal cultures; and Prof. Matteo Garbelotto, a Berkeley forest
pathologist and leading expert on Sudden Oak Death. The CBC also co-hosted, with the
BNHMs, a public open house for KQED, to complement the recent television series on Evolution,
with displays and discussions that introduced the public to opportunities and resources at the
Museums and Field Stations.
In March 2002 CBC was a cosponsor of a UC Museum of Paleontology short course
entitled 'Back to the future: the history of San Francisco Bay'. CBC members were also involved
in lectures and topics discussed included: geological forces that continue to shape the Bay; the
results of sea level fluctuations through the ice ages; the ecology of the Bay and what it takes to
survive in such a fluctuating environment; major impacts on the Bay - the human invasion and
'other' invasive species; the future of the San Francisco Bay.
The CBC organized two retreats, one at the U.C. Botanical Garden (April 2001), and at
the Hastings Natural History Reserve (May 2002). These were attended by faculty and
researchers in Integrative Biology, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Anthropology/Archaeology, and
Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Attendees made brief presentations of their
own work and discussed plans for collaborations that could be fostered by the CBC. These
retreats have launched several collaborative proposals for both research and educational
initiatives, as well as ongoing plans for scientific and teaching partnerships (e.g., the
Environmental Education to the Luce Foundation). The CBC also sponsored a weekend field trip
to the Angelo Coast Range Reserve to welcome and orient new graduate students in the
Department of Integrative Biology at Berkeley in August, 2002.
The CBC and Hastings Reservation organized a special conferences in celebration of the
Sagehen Field Stations 50th Anniversary, the Sierra Nevada Science Symposium
http://danr.ucop.edu/wrc/snssweb/regis.html. CBC was one of a number of symposium conveners
who provided financial and logistical support for the 2002 Sierra Nevada Science Symposium.
The topic of the Symposium was 'Science for Management and Conservation'. CBC affiliates
from UC Berkeley (Craig Moritz, MVZ Director, chaired a session, Jeff Brown, Sagehen Manager,
hosted a field trip to his reserve) were well represented presenting 6 talks, chairing 3 sessions
and presenting 18 posters. The main success of the conference was in bringing together people
from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines that shared a common goal: management and
conservation of the various Sierra Nevada ecosystems. Representatives of state and federal
government agencies and those working within universities were about equally represented as
were academic scientists and those more closely involved with management issues.
In San Francisco on October 27, 2002, Director Mary Power was a speaker and panelist
at the California Science Teachers Association (CSTA), organized by Senior Analyst Judy
Scotchmoor of the U.C. Museum of Paleontology. The presentation was part of a professional
development program for teachers entitled, "Earth's History and the Nature of Science." Director
Power highlighted opportunities for high school students to engage in field research at Berkeley's
Natural History field stations, showed slides of student and faculty projects at the Angelo Coast
Range Reserve, and discussed their relevance to citizens' choices about land use and water
allocation in California.
The CBC sponsored an EcoInformatics Workshop for data managers, students and
faculty on October 28, 2002. The presenters were Dr. William Michener, Associate Director
(Special Projects) of the Long Term Ecological Research Network Office at the University of New
Mexico and former Program Director of Ecology in the Division of Biological Sciences at the NSF,
and Dr. James Brunt, Associate Director (Information Management) of the Long Term Ecological
Research Network Office at the University of New Mexico. They updated the growing
environmental informatics group at Berkeley on new initiatives and national standards being
developed for ecological informatics. These include the Science Environment for Ecological
Knowledge (SEEK), the Partnership for Biodiversity Informatics (PBI), and the Knowledge
Network for BioComplexity (KNB). The follow up workshop, where hands on training in some
informatics and database management was offered, was attended by graduate students,
postdocs, informatics staff, and faculty from the Berkeley departments of Integrative Biology,
Environmental Policy, Science and Management, Geography, Energy and Resources Group,
Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as the Jepson Herbarium, the U.C. Herbarium, the
Essig Museum of Entomology, the U.C. White Mountain Research Station, San Francisco State
University, the Berkeley Forest Research stations, the U.C. Botanical Garden, the U.C. Museum
of Paelontology, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, the Center for Stable Isotpoe
Biogeochemistry, and the new NSF Science and Technology Center, the National Center for
Earth Surface Dynamics (Appendix 1).
Field Station Activities, 2001-2002:
Angelo Coast Range Reserve
About the reserve:
The Angelo Coast Range Reserve (ACRR) is one of 34 reserves protected for university level
teaching and research by the University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS,
http://nrs.ucop.edu/). The Angelo Reserve is administered by the Berkeley campus through the
California Biodiversity Center. The reserve was established in 1959 by the Nature Conservancy
(TNC) and Heath and Marjorie Angelo, and was managed by TNC until 1989 when management
was turned over to the UCNRS. Title to the reserve was transferred in 1994. In 1961 the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) set aside some of its adjacent land in recognition of its natural value.
Together the two areas combine to form an 8000 acre natural area for research, teaching, and
public environmental education.
The reserve is located in northern Mendocino Co. in the steep and rugged Coast Range.
Elevations range from 390 m to 1263 m. Habitats include mixed evergreen forest, chaparral, oak
woodlands, meadows, and riparian zones along the S. Fork Eel River. In addition to a 5-km reach
of the S. Fork Eel River, the reserve encompasses the entire watersheds of 3 perennial streams.
The climate is typically Mediterranean, with the bulk of the rain falling between November and
March, followed by long dry and warm summers.
Collections on site include an extensive herbarium and plant species list, as well as surveys of
mammals, soils, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians.. The USGS has maintained a gauging
station on Elder Creek since 1974.
Angelo Reserve Facilities support year round research and teaching, and include individual as
well as group housing available to any qualified person, institution, or group, on a
per/person/night basis. When fully furnished the newly completed Environmental Science Center
(funded by a grant from the Goldman Foundation) will provide lab space, computer lab, library
and collections room, class/conference room, and high-speed internet connection. Recent users
include graduate students and classes from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Humboldt
State University, SF State University, classes from College of the Redwoods, K-12 classes from
the Laytonville Unified School District and local private schools, USGS, Cal. Fish and Game, and
over 1500 public day users.
The Angelo Coast Range Reserve hosted a kickoff workshop, September 19-22, to set
the agenda for research and teaching for the new NSF Science and Technology Center, the
National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics (NCED). Earth scientists, ecologists, engineers,
and educators from U.C. Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of
Minnesota, and Fond du Lac College in northern Minnesota met at the new Environmental Center
recently completed at the Angelo Reserve. Focused discussions with the entire core NCED
team, as well as breakout group discussions, were held to map out several research areas and
particular collaborations. Two such projects, an examination of ecosystem physiology over
scales from microns to kilometers, and a study of how riparian trees influence the evolution of
channel morphology, will take place at the Angelo Reserve over the coming field seasons. The
Angelo Reserve will serve as a primary field laboratory for the Minneapolis-based NCED
(http://www.nced.umn.edu/). NCED will fund high speed internet connections to the Angelo
Reserve.
Selected 2001-2002 Research Projects and recent publications based on research at the Angelo
Reserve are described in Appendix 2.
Sagehen Creek Field Station
Description
Sagehen Creek Field Station(SCFS) is a research and teaching facility of the
University of California at Berkeley’s, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the
Berkeley Natural History Museums and the California Biodiversity Center. The
Station was established in 1951 with the signing of a long-term special use permit
with the USDA Forest Service, which manages the land.
The year round Station facilities are at an elevation of 6380 feet in California on the east
slope of the northern Sierra Nevada, approximately 20 miles North of Lake Tahoe. The
roughly 8000 acre Sagehen Creek watershed includes yellow pine, mixed conifer, and red fir
forests, brushfields, scattered mountain meadows and fens. Deep snow is typical of the
winter season, and dry, warm weather is typical of the summer period. Sagehen Creek is
about 8 miles long, extending eastward from near the crest of the Sierra
to Stampede Reservoir on the Little Truckee River. The watershed is managed by the
Truckee Ranger District of the Tahoe National Forest for multiple uses. Sagehen Creek is a
candidate for inclusion in the Wild and Scenic River Inventory.
Field Station
Station Manager
Address
Telephone
Fax
Email
Web Site
Established
Jeffrey R. Brown
University of California, Berkeley
Sagehen Creek Field Station
P.O. Box 939
11616 Sagehen Rd
Truckee, CA 96160
(530) 587-4830
(530) 582-4031
SagehenC@uclink.berkeley.edu
http://chance.research.berkeley.edu/Sagehen
1951
Multicampus Research / Public Outreach
SCFS provides full service, multidisciplinary research and classroom facilities to any
qualified group on a per night/person person use fee basis. Use of the station and facilities
is quite varied. Recent use includes: UC Berkeley graduate students and classes, UC Davis
graduate students and classes, SFSU graduate students, the USDA Forest Service,
California Fish & Game, University of Nevada at Reno, the Desert Research Institute, The
Truckee School District, Truckee River Watershed Council, USGS, Lawrence Hall of
Science, The Nature Conservancy, California Public Health Service, Lawrence Livermore
National Lab and UC Santa Barbara.
Sagehen Creek is a Benchmark Creek for the USGS and water samples have been
collected and analized since 1975. Weather data has been collected since the early 1950’s.
Stream flow measurements and temperatures have been taken at the USGS stream
gauging station on Sagehen Creek since the early 1950’s. Extensive plant, mammal,
vegetation, fish, soils, archaelogic and insect survey records are on file. Over 70 PHD and
Masters theses and more than 300 other scientific publications have been produced form
research efforts conducted at SCFS.
SCFS has an underwater observation building built adjacent to Sagehen Creek. This facility
has 3-8’ long underwater viewing windows that enable various projects relating to streams to
be conducted.
2002 Annual Report
University of California Berkeley
Central Sierra Snow Laboratory
Administered by the California Biodiversity Center
by Randall Osterhuber
Manager and Staff Research Associate
Central Sierra Snow Laboratory
PO Box 810
10162 Bunny Hill Road
Soda Springs, California 95728 USA
(530) 426-0318
(530) 426-0319 fax
email contact: randall@sierra.net
http://research.chance.berkeley.edu/cssl/index.htm
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/current/snow/pillowplots/YubaAmerican.html
www.wrcc.dri.edu/weather/cssl.html
The Central Sierra Snow Laboratory (CSSL)
Since its inception in 1946 (built by the then U.S. Weather Bureau and Army Corps of Engineers),
the CSSL has been a snow hydrology research facility. The Central Sierra Snow Laboratory is a
research field station of UC Berkeley specializing in snow physics, snow hydrology, meteorology,
climatology, and instrument design.
The CSSL's mission is to provide a facility for research to address the uncertainties,
characteristics, and timing of the Sierra Nevada's snowfall and hydrologic cycle. This includes,
but is not limited to, the temporal and spatial distribution of the accumulating and ablating
snowpack; the snowpack's physical and chemical response to atmospheric and anthropogenic
phenomena; and identifying short and long term implications of these phenomena to snowpack
ground- and surface-water yield. Since more than 50 percent of California's usable fresh water is
born of the melting Sierra Nevada snowpack, understanding the physical variations of snowpacks
and alpine watershed climatic regimes is essential if water managers are to have sufficient
resiliency to cope with climatic change. Industry, recreation, riparian health, recreation, and
domestic water use all have claims—and sometimes competing interests—levied against the
snow zone's water yield.
Current research activities at the CSSL (Appendix 3) include using rare earth elements as solute
transport tracers within the snowpack; measuring the attenuation of cosmic radiation through
snow to assess snowpack snow water equivalent; trends in climatology and snowpack
characteristics during the past 13 decades; weather instrument testing and evaluation; avalanche
safety and forecasting; and conducting various community education and outreach programs that
address local snow hydrology and weather issues.
Personnel
Andrew Barkhuff, Program Manager, National Weather Service 6,7
Mark Bollinger, Research Scientist, 2B Technologies 4
Elizabeth Carter, Atmospheric Scientist, Firnspiegel 5,6
David Collins, Electrical Engineer, Dartmouth College 3
Ken Condreva, Research Scientist, Sandia National Laboratories 4
Michael Dettinger, USGS, Scripps Institution of Oceanography 6,7
Xiahong Feng, Professor of Geophysics, Dartmouth College 3
Frank Gehrke, Chief, Snow Surveys, CA Department of Water Resources 4,6,7
Emma Goldberg, UC Berkeley 2
Dan Greenlee, Hydrologist, USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service 6,7
Kathy Hoxsie, Meteorologist, National Weather Service 6
Arlen Huggins, Research Climatologist, Desert Research Institute 6
Richard Kattelmann, Snow Hydrologist, UC Santa Barbara 5
James Kirchner, Professor of Geophysics, UC Berkeley 1,3
Björn Klaue, Hydrologist, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan 3
Joyce Leighton, Administrative Analyst 1
Ed Luby, Associate Director 1
Jessica Lundquist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego 1,4,6
Greg McCurdy, Programmer, Desert Research Institute 6
Bob Moore, Snow Ranger, Tahoe National Forest 5
Gary Murphy, Avalanche Forecaster, Alpine Meadows Ski Corp 5
Randall Osterhuber, Research Associate, Central Sierra Snow Laboratory 1,3,4,5,6,7
Kelly Redmond, Climatologist, Desert Research Institute 6
Carl Renshaw, Geophysicist, Department of Earth Science, Dartmouth College 3
Tarel Selles, Analyst 1
Marina Solgado, UC Santa Barbara 2
Alex Tardy, Meteorologist, National Weather Service 6
Susan Taylor, Hydrologist, US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory,
Hanover, NH 2,3
Kelly Turner, Evergreen College, Washington 2
Bill Williamson, Operations Director, Sugar Bowl Ski Area 5
1
UCB Faculty/Staff
Student
3 REE project
4 Gamma sensor project
5 Avalanche safety/forecasting
6 Meteorology/Climatology/Monitoring
7 River flow forecast
2
Appendix 1. Attendees of EcoInformatics Workshop, October 28,
2002, UC Berkeley
Bill Michener1 and James Brunt2, Presenters
1Associate
Director (Special Projects) of the Long Term Ecological Research Network Office at
the University of New Mexico.
wmichener@lternet.edu
2Associate
Director (Information Management) of the Long Term Ecological Research Network
Office at the University of New Mexico
jbrunt@lternet.edu
Name
Position, job
Informatics interest
email
Kathleen Dickey
marine biologist Research
Associate, Jepson
Herbarium, census (NOAA)
Farallones, Tomales Bay,
ATBI, database
management
Museum Scientist, Essig
Museum of Entomology,
UCB
standardizing data
collection, setting up
protocols
kdickey@starband.net
standardization of
data structure and
modeling metadata
for arthropods
hydro-,
environmentalinformatics, data
systems, data fusion
and mining
ecological networks,
semantics,
ontologies
nishidag@uclink.berkel
ey.edu
data synthesis for
USFS and National
Park Service data
on alpine meadows
Theoretical ecology,
simulation/modeling
knowledge
representation
Web datatbase
application of
scientific data
Forest ecology
research, data
sharing, archiving,
mining
eric@wmrs.edu
general
database@sscl.berkele
y.edu
Gordon Nishida
Xu Liang
faculty, Civil and
Environmental Engineering,
UCB.
Neo Martinez
faculty, S.F. State Uiv.,
affiliated faculty, UCB
Energy and Resources
Group
Research Scientist, U.C.
White Mountain Research
Station, Visiting Scholar,
UCB
Researcher, UC Santa
Cruz, SFSU
Eric Berlow
Rich Williams
Carrie Salazar
Programmer Analyst
John Battles
faculty, Environmental
Science, Policy, and
Management, UCB
Research Director, Forest
Research Stations
Data Base Analyst,
applications development
Effie Dilworth
liang@ce.berkeley.edu
neo@sfsu.edu
rich@sfsu.edu
salazar@nature.edu
jbattles@nature.berkele
y.edu
Debra Kelly
Roberty Hijman
Colleen Whitney
Josh Klaus
Agneta H.
Plamboek
Pamela Templer
Jeanette
Howard
Tim Herrlinger
Collin Bode
Jack Sculley
Mark Stromberg
Karen Campbell
Diana Dalbotten
Mary Power
for SMASH, U.C.
Herbarium
Programmer/Analyst,
Museum Informatics
project, U.C. Botanical
Garden SAGE database
Biogeography/informatics
researcher at MVZ
Webmaster, U.C. Museum
of Paleontology
Staff Researcher
Postdoc at the Center for
Stable Isotope
Biogeochemistry, UCB
Postdoc, with Profs. Mary
Firestone and Whendee
Silver, ESPM, UCB
Graduate Student, Dept. of
Geography, UCB
Research Affiliate
Programmer Analyst,
Power lab, Angelo Reserve,
and Mus. Vertebrate
Zoology, UCB
Graduate Student, Dept. of
Integrative Biology, UCB
Research Director,
Hastings Reserve, Mus.
Vertebrate Zoology, UCB
Director, Knowledge
Transfer, National Center
for Earth Surface Dynamics
(NCED)
Director, Education
Programs, NCED
faculty, Integrative Biology,
UCB, faculty manager,
Angelo Reserve, Director,
California Biodiversity
Center, NCED
general
bioinformatics
dkelly@socrates.berkel
ey.edu
many
rhijmans@hotmail.com
accessibility of
information via webs
many
cwhitney@uclink.berkel
ey.edu
joshk@nature.berkeley.
edu
agneta@socrates.berke
ley.edu
general
general
ptempler@nature.berke
ley.edu
spatial components
of data sharing
Long-term data sets
and management
GIS query and
display in distributed
spatial databases
jhowie@uclink4.berkele
y.edu
tjherrlinger@ucdavis.ed
u
collin@socrates.berkele
y.edu
spatial datasets,
modeling
finding data at field
stations
jsculley@socrates.berk
eley.edu
stromber@socrates.ber
keley.edu
proper informatics
practices for NCED,
a new NSF Science
and Technology
Center partnering
with the Angelo
Reserve and UCB
database design
and management
capture, archiving,
and dissemination of
data from field
stations, long term
ecological
monitoring
kmc@umn.edu
dalbo001@umn.edu
mepower@socrates.ber
keley.edu
Appendix 2. Selected Research Projects and Publications, 20012002, Angelo Coast Range Reserve
Spatial scales in river and watershed food webs. Isotopic tracers, increasingly available,
reveal flow paths through space and time of organisms or their elemental constituents.
Concurrently, new mapping technologies based on remote sensing are being developed to
characterize landscape features (e.g. watershed divides, thermal cells in oceans) that contain and
constrain these fluxes and the food webs they support. At the Angelo reserve, both of these tools
support studies of how cross-habitat fluxes from rivers to forests affect consumers, communities,
and ecosystems in recipient watershed habitats (Power and Rainey 2000). Subsidies (exported
algae and emergent aquatic insects) and boundaries have been experimentally manipulated to
study their effects on terrestrial consumers, food webs and ecosystems (e.g., Sabo and Power
2002). New work with scientists, engineers, and modelers at the National Center for Earth
Surface Dynamics should permit upscaling and increased understanding of how these ecological
processes contribute or respond to more regional dynamics.
Otolith and isotopic analysis of habitat use by juvenile salmonids in a river drainage
network. Following up on work by Jacques Finlay and others at the Angelo Reserve (Finlay et
al. 2002), Dr. Peter Weber (Geography, UCB) wanted to determine if the carbon isotope patterns
seen in river and stream food webs were reflected in the otoliths of the fish. Otoliths are banded
calcium carbonate accretions in the inner ear of bony fish. They grow continuously over the life of
the fish and, unlike bone, are metabolically inert. Therefore, these structures contain a chemical
history of the fish. Otolith carbon isotopic composition could potentially be used to reconstruct the
feeding and geographic history of a fish. Aquatic food web carbon isotopes are complex and
therefore the opportunity to follow up on previous carbon isotope work at the Angelo Reserve was
welcome. Otoliths and insect samples were collected. The analyses are in process.
Impacts of fine deposited sediment on juvenile salmonids and the food webs that support
them. Excessive loading of fine sediments into western rivers has degraded spawning and
rearing habitat for salmonids, and contributed substantially to their declines. Impacts on salmon
redds have been studied extensively, but effects on juvenile rearing are less well documented. A
field experiment in the South Fork Eel River examined the impacts of deposited fine sediment on
juvenile steelhead with a design that allowed the effects of fine bed sediments to be isolated from
other covarying factors. Increasing levels of embeddedness with deposited fine sediment (from
zero to 100%) decreased growth and survival of juvenile steelhead trout. The nearly linear
decreases in growth resulted from decreased food availability and metabolic costs of increased
activity and intraspecific aggression. The invertebrate community changed from one of more
available prey to one of unavailable burrowing taxa with higher levels of deposited fine sediment.
Steelhead in more heavily embedded channels showed more continuous movement and
aggression and higher incidence of injury. This study (Power et al. 2002, Suttle et al., submitted)
shows a direct impact of riverbed composition on salmonid rearing success, which has been
identified as a life history bottleneck in models informing efforts to recover these populations.
In continuing research on the impacts of deposited fine sediment in river food webs
(Power et al. 2002, Suttle et al., submitted), Blake Suttle (graduate student, Integrative Biology)
explored how fine bed sediment concentration affects interactions between mayfly larvae, the
most abundant aquatic grazers, and dragonfly and damselfly larvae, their major invertebrate
predators. He measured predation on mayfly grazers in replicate enclosures of differing bed
compositions and found that increasing levels of deposited fine sediment lead to greater
predation, indicating that high levels of deposited fine sediment simplify and perhaps shorten river
food webs.
Rebecca Doubledee investigated the distribution, abundance, and activity levels of Rana
boylii, a native frog species of special concern, with respect to the concentration of fine deposited
bed sediment.
Influence of mutualistic ant-aphid interactions on an invasive riparian plant. Will
Sattherthwaite, a Ph.D. candidate at UCSC, investigated effects of the interactions of ants and
aphids on invasive European thistles along the active river channel.
Effects of predators on plants transmitted through pollinators. With undergraduate Mary
Sorenson, Blake Suttle examined the effect of a predator of pollinating insects on the
reproductive success of the invasive plant from which it hunts. They found strong negative
indirect effects of the predator (crab spiders) on the plant (ox-eyed daisies), indicating that this
predator may limit the invasive spread of this plant, a previously undocumented form of biotic
resistance to invasion.
Simulated climate change in an annual grassland. Blake Suttle completed the second year of
a four-year manipulation of the duration and intensity of rainfall in large grassland plots, as
forecast for Northern California under two leading climate change models, to generate predictions
for the fate of these grasslands under alternate climate change scenarios. Plant related response
variables include seasonal cover, biomass, and decomposition rate of each major plant group,
disturbance recolonization, nitrogen availability (as both labile soil N and grass leaf tissue N), and
species richness. Animal related response variables include richness and abundance of taxa, as
measured through seasonal sweep net and pitfall samples. He also conducted two field
experiments and extensive grasshopper foraging behavior observations examining how changes
in resource availability, herbivory, and predation affect food chain structure in northern California
annual grasslands.
Meredith Wilson in Carla D'Antonio’s lab in Integrative Biology, continued ongoing field research
examining the responses of native grasses to alternate climate change scenarios predicted by
leading climate models. In replicate plots in Blake Suttle’s experiment receiving different amounts
and duration of precipitation, three native grass species were added as seed, plugs, and large
tussocks. Plugs of the European perennial grass, Holcus, were also introduced and monitored.
The survival, growth, and reproductive success of each is being monitored for three years.
Drs. Rebecca Eisen and Lars Talleklint-Eisen, working with Prof. Bob Lane in Environmental
Science, Policy, and Management, UCB, sampled the Angelo Coast Range Reserve for immature
stages of the tick Ixodes pacificus, the primary vector of the Lyme disease spirochaete in
California. The determined seasonal activity patterns of immature stages of this tick, which have
recently been found to have a higher incidence of infection than older tick life stages which have
had their blood cleansed by feeding on the western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis. Ticks
on the lizards were also sampled.
Prof. Kathrin Stanger-Hall from University of Texas at Austin collected diurnal fireflies at the
Angelo Reserve to expand her work on the phylogenetic relationships of North American
lampyrids (firefly beetles).
Angelo Publications 2000-2002
Bastow, J. L., J. L. Sabo, J. C. Finlay, and M. E. Power. 2002. A basal aquatic-terrestrial trophic link
in rivers: algal subsidies via shore-dwelling grasshoppers. Oecologia 131:261-268
D’Antonio, C. M., J. M. Levine, and M. Thomson. 2002. Ecosystem resistance to invasion and the
role of propagule supply: a California perspective. Journal of Mediterranean Ecology in
press.
Fausch, K. D., M. E. Power, and M. Murakami. 2002. Linkages between stream and forest food
webs: Shigeru Nakano's legacy for ecology in Japan. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17:
429-434
Finlay, J.C., Khandwala, S. and M.E. Power. 2002. Spatial scales of energy flow in food webs of
the South Fork Eel River. Ecology 83: 1845-1859.
Finlay, J.C. 2001. Stable carbon isotope ratios of river biota: implications for energy flow in lotic
food webs. Ecology 82: 1052-1064.
Finlay, J.C. 2000. Stable isotope analysis of river food webs and carbon cycling. Ph.D.,
University of California, Berkeley.
Gresens, S.E. 2001. Thermal sensitivity of ingestion and digestion in larvae of a eurythermal
chironomid. J. North Am. Benthol. Soc. 20: 68-83.
Howard, J. K. and K. M. Cuffey. 2002. Freshwater mussels in a California North Coast Range
river: occurrence, distribution, and controls. Journal of the North American Benthological
Society in press.
Levine, J.M. 1999. Indirect facilitation: Evidence and predictions from a riparian community.
Ecology 80: 1762-1769.
Levine, J.M. 2000. Species diversity and biological invasions: relating local process to
community pattern. Science 288: 761-763.
Levine, J. M. 2002. A patch modeling approach to the community-level consequences of
directional dispersal. Ecology in press.
Levine, J. M. 2001. Local interactions, dispersal, and native and exotic plant diversity along a
California stream. Oikos 95: 397-408.
Levine, J. M. 2000. Species diversity and biological invasions: relating local process to
community pattern. Science 288: 852-854.
Levine, J. M. 2000. Complex interactions in a streamside plant community. Ecology 81: 34313444.
Levine, J. M. 1999. Indirect facilitation: evidence and predictions from a riparian community.
Ecology 80: 1762-1769.
Levine, J.M. 2001. Ecological determinants and consequences of plant species diversity along a
California stream. Ph.D. Dissertation, U. California, Berkeley.
Marks, J.C., M.E. Power and M.S. Parker. 2000. Flood disturbance, algal productivity, and
interannual variation in food chain length. Oikos 90: 20-27.
Power, M. E.and W. E. Dietrich. 2002. Food webs in river networks. Ecological Research 17:451471.
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Power, M.E., K.B. Suttle, J.M. Levine, and F. C. McNeely. 2002. Effects of fine bed sediments on
juvenile steelhead and food webs supporting them. Ecological Society of America
Abstract, Tuscon, August 2002
Power, M.E. 2001. Prey exchange between a stream and its forested watershed elevate predator
densities in both habitats. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 98: 14-15.
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bed habitat to trophic dynamics. pp 405-422 in Mosley, M. P. (editor), Gravel-Bed Rivers
V, New Zealand Hydrological Society, Wellington, New Zealand (ISBN 0-473-07486-9).
Power, M.E. 2001. Field biology, food web models, and management: Challenges of context and
scale. Oikos 94: 118-129
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Stewart (eds.) Ecological Consequences of Habitat Heterogeneity. Blackwell Scientific,
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Evolution and Ecology 15: p. 443-444.
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terrestrial invertebrates in a California watershed. Journal of the North American
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the short-term consequences for alternate terrestrial prey. Ecology, in press.
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California, Berkeley.
Appendix 3: Current Research Activities and Recent Publications
from the University of California Berkeley Central Sierra Snow
Laboratory
Current Research Activities
Snowpack Solute Transport Mechanisms
Snowmelt often accounts for the majority of the annual water input to a catchment. During the
winter, snowpacks accumulate and store atmospherically deposited chemical contaminants. But
the chemical composition of snowmelt does not equal the average composition in the snowpack
itself, but varies temporally as melting proceeds. During snow metamorphism, solutes tend to be
concentrated near the exterior of snow grains, resulting in an ionic pulse during the first ~25
percent of snowmelt. The magnitude of this ionic pulse is dependent upon the solute transport
mechanism. At the CSSL, very dilute concentrations of rare Earth elements (REE) are applied to
the snow surface at intervals throughout the winter. These REEs act as tracers, the presence of
which are detected in the snowpack meltwater. Observations of the travel time, distance, and
concentration of each REE can distinguish between piston and preferential flow. Distinguishing
between these two transport mechanisms may have important implications for solute transport
processes at the watershed level.
Assessing Total Snowpack Snow Water Equivalent by the Attenuation of Deep-Space Radiation
Remote sensing of snowpack snow water equivalent (swe) is most commonly measured with
large (7.5 m2) bladders filled with an antifreeze fluid. The fluid is compressed by the weight of the
overlaying snowcover and the subsequent pressure on the antifreeze is measured by a pressure
transducer or manometer. There are many problems with this technique of attempting to "weigh"
a finite column of snow cover that is somewhat infinite in extent. These problems include bridging
of the sensor, flooding, plumbing leaks, and siting and installation difficulties. New swe sensing
techniques are under development at the CSSL that measure the slight attenuation of very high
energy gamma radiation as it passes through the snowpack. This radiation originates in deep
space and is quite constant at any one location on Earth. A small cube (~8 cm 3) of scintillating
material records the gamma energy, one cube placed at ground level, another stationary above
the snowpack. The energy spectra of the two are compared, and it is found that the attenuation
is exponentially related to the snowpack swe. These sensors are small, portable, and solid-state.
Refinements of design and application are ongoing at the CSSL.
Avalanche Safety and Forecasting
The avalanche fatality rate in the western US continues to climb; the lead demographic among
winter recreationists being snowmobilers. The fatality rate in the Sierra Nevada, despite its
prolific snowfall and high concentration of winter recreationists, is a small fraction of Colorado,
Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. This is largely due to the snowpack-stabilizing effect of (relatively)
warmer winter air temperatures common throughout the Sierra Nevada. Nevertheless, the Sierra
is averaging about one avalanche fatality per winter. Data (air temp, snowfall, snowpack
settlement, wind speed/direction, precipitation) from the CSSL is used to generate daily
avalanche hazard forecasts from mid-November through April. These forecasts are distributed
on the internet via private and government sites. Research at the CSSL also concentrates on the
identification of potential shear layers within the snowpack and the mechanisms that promote
their formation and disappearance. Interviews are also conducted with individual winter
recreationists regarding their avalanche and backcountry experience. One goal is to explain why
a large increase in the number of women winter recreationists does not positively correlate with
the almost exclusively male-dominated avalanche accident/fatality demographic.
Long-Term Meteorological and Climatological Trends, Measurements, and Monitoring
The CSSL has fairly complete meteorological records dating from 1946 (when the CSSL was
built). There have been meteorological measurements recorded on Donner Summit immediately
surrounding the CSSL since 1870. The Southern Pacific Railroad, Pacific Gas and Electric, and
the California Department of Water Resources are responsible for the early data collection.
Combined, the data stream is 132 years. No other data stream of such length from a highelevation western snow zone exists. Investigations of periodicity, recurrence intervals, climatic
extremes, and trends within the historic record are ongoing. The CSSL is a reporting met station:
part of the newly-formed trans-Sierra climate monitoring program. Much of the data collected at
the CSSL is displayed on-line; more instruments being added all the time. Data from the CSSL is
used and archived by hundreds of agencies and individual users.
Community Outreach
The CSSL conducts many tours of its facility and research projects each winter. Visiting groups
range from hydrology graduate classes to local school groups and interested individuals. In
addition, CSSL personnel conduct informative lectures and slide shows on topics of snow and
snow hydrology.
Relevant Publications
A Study of Solute Transport Mechanisms Using REE Tracers and Artificial Rain Storms on Snow,
Water Resources Research, 37, p. 1425-1435, 2001. Feng, X., Kirchner, J., Renshaw, C.,
Osterhuber, R., Klaue, B., Taylor, S.
Climate Summary of Donner Summit, 1870 - 2001, Publication of the Central Sierra Snow
Laboratory, 2001. Osterhuber, R.
Investigating Periodicity in the Long Term Precipitation Record of Donner Summit, California,
Proceedings of the Western Snow Conference p. 92-94, 2000. Osterhuber, R.
Isotopic Evolution of Snowmelt: I. A Physically based 1-D Model, Water Resources Research in
press, 2002. Feng, X., Taylor, S., Renshaw, C., Kirchner, J.
Isotopic Evolution of Snowmelt: II. Verification and Parameterization of a 1-D Model Using
Laboratory Experiments, Water Resources Research, in press, 2002. Taylor, S., Feng, X.,
Renshaw, C., Kirchner, J.
Isotopic Evolution of a Seasonal Snowpack and its Melt, Water Resources Research 37, p. 759769, 2001. Taylor, S., Feng, X., Kirchner, J., Osterhuber, R., Klaue, B., Renshaw, C.
Rare Earth Elements as Chemical Tracers in Snow Studies, Proceedings of the Eastern Snow
Conference, p.13-20, 1998. Taylor, S., Feng, X., Klaue, B., Albert, M., Kirchner, J.
Snowpack Snow Water Equivalent Measurement Using the Attenuation of Cosmic Gamma
Radiation, Proceedings of the Western Snow Conference, p. 19-25, 1998. Osterhuber, R.,
Gehrke, F., Condreva, K.
Warm Storms Associated With Avalanche Hazard in the Sierra Nevada, Proceedings of the
International Snow Science Workshop, p. 526-533, 1998. Osterhuber, R., Kattelmann, R.
Water Conditions in California, Bulletin 120, California Department of Water Resources, 2002.
Gehrke, F. et al.