WHONDRS Watershed Perturbation Response Traits was a multi-phase project aiming to transform our ability to understand and predict how the influences of biogeochemical hot spots and hot moments on surface/subsurface systems are altered by perturbation. New theories and models are being developed across a broad range of watersheds to ultimately inform next-generation Earth system models and help preserve long-term national clean water security.

The project had several phases:

• Phase 1 (March–August 2020): Collaborators around the United States deployed temperature sensors in their river corridor systems to allow for inference of sediment inundation history for Phase 2. Sensors were deployed on the sediment surface of a riverbed variably inundated zone, always inundated zone, and never inundated zone.
• Phase 2 (August–October 2020): Collaborators from 53 sites around the United States collected surface sediments from the riverbed variably inundated zone that was targeted during Phase 1.
• Phase 3: Laboratory drying/wetting experiments using sediment from Phase 2. 

Spatial coverage

Data types

Time series temperature from deployed sensors to infer:

• inundation dynamics
• hydrographs (USGS and others)
• grain size
• mineralogy (EMSL)
• bulk C and N (EMSL)
• metabolomics by NMR (EMSL)
• FTICR-MS (EMSL)
• LC-MS (EMSL)
• GC-MS (EMSL), and
• expressed microbial metabolism by metatranscriptomics (EMSL).

Ideas for science questions to explore with the data

• To what degree are meta-metabolomes governed by stochastic vs. deterministic processes?
• Which aspects of organic matter chemistry show spatial structure at regional to continental scales?
• Are there systematic connections between microbial gene expression and organic matter chemistry?

Data access

Laan M., R. E. Danczak, D. Delgado, B. Forbes, V. A. Garayburu-Caruso, A. E. Goldman, B. I. Gonzalez, M. H. Kaufman. S. A. McKever, C. Norris, J. A. Ocejo, B. Powers-McCormack, L. Renteria, K. A. Rod, T. D. Scheibe, M. M. Tfaily, J. C. Stegen. WHONDRS Consortium T (2024): Laboratory time series moisture manipulative experiment from sediment across the contiguous US: time series aerobic respiration and geochemistry (v2). Early Career Research Program: Watershed Perturbation-Response Traits Derived Through Ecological Theory - Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS), ESS-DIVE repository. Dataset. doi:10.15485/2428003

Stegen, J. C., V. A. Garayburu-Caruso, R. E. Danczak, R. Chu, B. Forbes, A. E. Goldman, M. L. McCall, S. A. McKever, B. Powers-McCormack, L. Renteria, J. G. Toyoda. (2024): Data and scripts associated with the manuscript "Organic Molecules are Deterministically Assembled in River Sediments". Early Career Research Program: Watershed Perturbation-Response Traits Derived Through Ecological Theory - Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS), ESS-DIVE repository. Dataset. doi:10.15485/2367553  

Garayburu-Caruso, V. A., A. E. Goldman, R. Chu, R. E. Danczak, M. L. McCall, S. A. McKever, L. Renteria, N. Tolic, J. M. Torgeson, J. G. Toyoda, J. C. Stegen. WHONDRS Consortium T (2021): FTICR, NPOC, TN, and Moisture of Variably Inundated Sediment across 48 North American Rivers. Early Career Research Program: Watershed Perturbation-Response Traits Derived Through Ecological Theory - Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS), ESS-DIVE repository. Dataset. doi:10.15485/1834208  

Reed A., V. A. Garayburu-Caruso, A. E. Goldman, M. L. McCall, L. Renteria, J. M. Torgeson, J. C. Stegen. WHONDRS Consortium T (2021): Time Series Surface Temperature of Variably Inundated Sediment across 30 North American Rivers. Early Career Research Program: Watershed Perturbation-Response Traits Derived Through Ecological Theory - Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS), ESS-DIVE repository. Dataset. doi:10.15485/1834207  

Funding

Funding for this project is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Early Career Research Program.