Characterization of Root Zone Soil Moisture and Herpetofaunal Biodiversity in the Southern Great Plains

(1) Goal: The scientific objective to the proposed research is to develop a proto-type downscaled (<1 km) version of the root-zone soil moisture product called SoilMERGE or SMERGE. This objective is linked as root zone soil moisture is a critical climate variable that has a more direct influence on plant growth than precipitation. Therefore, the developed downscaled version of SMERGE can be used as input into biodiversity informatic techniques (i.e., maximum entropy modeling) Development of downscaled SMERGE will be facilitated by Department of Energy (DOE) resources specifically data from the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facility and modeling platforms such as the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM).. Authors: Tobin, Kenneth J. [Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)]. DOE Contract: SC0023067