LUQ LTER DATA SETS DOCUMENTATION FORM
ON-LINE VERSION
A DATA SET is a series of observations collected by the same methodology. Each data set should have documentation sufficient for someone unfamiliar with the research to replicate the study. Data sets may be broken into subsets (data files) that are discrete in space and time, in that order. The documentation for a data set should include all spatial and temporal subdivisions of the data.
(Data, Abstract, Methods, Variables)
NOTES:
PERSON(S) COMPLETING THIS FORM: E-MAIL ADDRESS:
|
Eda C. Melendez-Colom |
emelendez@lternet.edu |
DATA SET IDENTIFIER: Rainfall at El Verde since 1975
PROJECT TITLE: Meteorology at El Verde
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Rainfall and temperature have been measured at the El Verde Station since 1964, twenty two years previous to LUQ LTER 1. In McDowell and Estrada-Pinto (1), the collection procedures, the daily raw precipitation data from 1964 to 1986, and some summary statistics of the precipitation data covered on that period of time were reported. Meteorological sensors were installed at the El Verde Field Station's flat concrete rooftop, 3 m above the ground surface at an elevation of 350 m asl after the September 1989 (Hugo) hurricane. Since 1995, rainfall and temperature data since 1975 and sensors data since 1990 from the above records are being published on the LUQ LTER Web site. Begining in 2003, Ramírez and Meléndez-Colom report a summary of the data from these data set online. The latter is a downloadable pdf file that can be found at: http://ites.upr.edu/EVFS/MeteorSummary2004.pdf (See Annual Summary Charts)
(1) William H. McDowell and Alejo Estrada-Pinto.1988. Rainfall at El Verde Station, 1964-1986. Center for Energy and Environmenta Research (CEER), Technical Report No. CEER T-228.
LTER CORE AREAS:
(Annotate all that apply)
|
Primary Productivity |
LEF LTER 1 RESEARCH TOPIC: (Annotate all that apply)
|
Environmental monitoring |
We define a data file as
a component of a data set. A data set can have only one data file or more. Basically,
different data files have different data structures or format.
DATA SET FILES (SUBSETS):
|
Data File No. |
Data File Identifier |
On-Line Filename |
Starting Date |
Periodicity of sample |
End Period |
|
1 |
El Verde Rainfall (1975-89) |
Jan 1, 1975 |
weekly |
Dec 31, 1989 |
|
|
2 |
El Verde Rainfall (1990-99) |
Jan 1, 1990 |
daily |
Dec 31, 1999 |
|
|
3 |
El Verde Rainfall (2000-current) |
Jan 1, 2000 |
Working days |
current |
RESEARCH LOCATION: El Verde Field Station
INVESTIGATORS:
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS E-MAIL address
|
William McDowell |
|
|
Douglas Schaefer |
|
OTHER RESEARCHERS E-MAIL address
|
Eda C. Melendez-Colom |
|
|
John Bithorn |
|
|
Alejo Estrada-Pinto |
|
Eda C. Melendez-Colom |
(787) 764-0000 (ext. 4943) |
SOURCE OF FUNDING (SPONSOR): NSF - LTER
DATA SET ABSTRACT: Rainfall has been measured at the El Verde Field Station since 1964. McDowell and Estrada-Pinto, 1988 presents a description of the collection procedures, raw data from 1964 to 1986, and some summary statistics for this period of record. Precipitation for this period showed some seasonality in monthly means, with a peak in May. Monthly averages for the period of 1975 to current chart can be found at this site. The highest values for the monthly averages for the period of 1975 to 2000 are from August to December with a low in October and November the highest. In this period the highest amount of total annual rainfall was in 1998 with 5293.61 mm and the minimum in 1994 with 1402.87 mm.
DATA SET METHODS:During first period of record the El Verde Field Station was administered by the Center for Energy and Environmental Research (CEER). Since 1988 the Station has been administered by what was known then as the Terrestrial Ecology Division (TED) of the University of Puerto Rico. In 1997 TED became the Institute of Tropical Ecosystem Studies (ITES) under the Natural Science Faculty of the University of Puerto Rico at the Rio Piedras Campus.
Originally data were recorded in ml unless noted otherwise. In the period of 1964 to 1967 values were recorded in inches. All data are published in mm or cm. The conversions factors used were cm = ml/324.128 and mm = ml/32.4128. Missing data-days were generated by dividing the next non-missing data-day by the number of consecutive missing data-days plus one. This number was assigned to the entire subset of consecutive missing data-days and to the next non-missing data-day.Data before 1974 were gathered weekly and from 1974 were questionable. These data are not published on this Web site, but can be found in McDowell and Estrada-Pinto, 1988.Rainfall has been collected at various locations and at various sampling frequencies since 1964. Details of the locations are given in McDowell and Estrada-Pinto, 1988. Current frequency of sampling is only during working days. From June 1974 on, rainfall has been sampled using a standard 8-inch diameter US Weather Service funnel connected to a ground-level reservoir.Norma Ortega and B. Hageny enter data until 1988, and McDowell corrected and updated them by June 1988. From 1988 to 1992, Violeta del Valle (CEER) entered the data, Nayda Ortiz (ITES) entered them from 1992 to Aug 2000, and data are currently entered by John Monge (ITES). Since 1989 data has been corrected and updated by Eda Melendez (ITES).
Instrumentation Description: a standard 8-inch diameter US Weather Service funnel Location of funnel have changed as follows: 1974 - Dec 1980 : located on the roof of the field station laboratory (approximately 3 m above ground level). Jan 1981 - location changed to a tower approximately 13 m above ground level. March 1983 - location of tower moved to an adjacent location of the dormitory building and extended to approximately 20 m ground surface. At present funnel is located on the roof of the station.
REFERENCES:
CROSS-REFERENCES (other data sets related to this one): LTERDBAS 14: Rainfall at El Verde since 1975; LTERDBAS 16: Maximum temperature at El Verde since 1975 ; LTERDBAS 17: Minimum temperature at El Verde since 1975; LTERDB 33: Metereological data from towers (pre-Hugo) or rooftop (post-Hugo) at El Verde
SAMPLE LOCATION: N/A
STORAGE SITES (of data files): ITES, Data Mngr.'s Cabinet DM333-01, Drawer #1
INVESTIGATOR'S ASSIGNED KEYWORDS: El Verde Field Station, precipitation, rainfall, LEF
LEF LTER OFFICIAL KEYWORDS (See table): EL VERDE, TABONUCO, CLIMATE, REPORT
PUBLICATIONS :
McDowell, W.H. and A. Estrada-Pinto. 1988. Rainfall
at El Verde Field Station, 1964-1986. Terrestrial Ecology Division, CEER. Technical
Report No. CEER-T-228.
DISSEMINATION : UNRESTRICTED
REASONS TO RESTRICT DATA IN THIS DATA SET BEYOND ITS TWO YEAR POLICY PERIOD*:
*WILL HAVE TO BE APPROVED BY LTER PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: J. ZIMMERMAN, A. LUGO , D.J. LODGE
FILING
___ "File" copy only: Data Management will only file an electronic copy
of the data file and its documentation
_X__ "Enter" data on-line: Data Management will be in charge of entering
the data on computer files (Contact Eda C. Meléndez
SITES DESCRIPTIONS: El Verde is at 350 m elevation, with mean rainfall 3450 mm per year. The soils are of volcanic origin. Work on the plant community at El Verde has focused on the 16-ha Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot (LFDP). The commonest are Prestoea acuminata (a palm), Casearia arborea, Dacryodes excelsa, Manilkara bidentata, Inga laurina, and Sloanea berteriana. The commonest shrubs are Palicourea riparia, Psychotria beteriana, and Piper glabrescens. Grasses, ferns, and forbs are frequent on the ground, especially in canopy gaps; epiphytes are common; and vines are uncommon.
Geographical positional system (GPS) Coordinates for each location:
|
location |
latitude |
longitude |
|
El Verde Field Station Lab (roof) |
18° 19' 22" N |
65° 49' 13" W |
VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):
|
FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears) |
1,2,3 |
1,2,3 |
1,2,3 |
1,2,3 |
|
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file) |
Year |
Julian |
Rainfall |
Date |
|
NAME OF VARIABLE |
Year |
Julian day |
Precipitation |
Date |
|
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE |
Collection year |
Julian day |
Rainfall as read from a standard 8-inch diameter US Weather Service funnel |
Complete date |
|
UNIT |
NA |
NA |
mm |
mm/dd/yyyy |
|
PRECISION |
NA |
NA |
.1 |
NA |
|
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES |
1975, … |
1, …, 366 |
NA |
01/01/75, … |
|
DATA TYPE |
Integer |
Integer |
Decimal |
Text |
|
MISSING DATA CODES |
None |
None |
None |
None |
COMPUTATIONAL METHODS:
|
Variable name |
Formula |
|
Rainfall |
cm = ml/324.128; mm = ml/32.4128 |
FOR DATA MANAGER USE ONLY
DATE OF LAST REVIEW:
Jan 17, 2006
DATE OF LAST ENTRY: last month
STAGE OF DATA SET MANAGEMENT (dates):
RECEIVED: before 1989 ENTERED: before 1989
FILED before 1989
ON-LINE 1995
REVIEWED BY RESEARCHER Dec 2000
FILING MEDIA :
NAME OF DOCUMENTATION FILE : lterdb14.htm
NAME OF ON - LINE CATALOG : LTERDBAS
RECORD # : 14
DOCUMENT TYPE : magnetic media
PRIORITY TO BE ENTERED : first
Rev. date of this form: 8 June 2000
