Rocky Mountain Rollercoaster

Welcome to Springtime in the Rocky Mountains.  This is the time when spring taunts us with warm weather, then dumps a foot of snow on our budding tulips.  When we feel the nearly insatiable itch to pack up the snow boots and shovels and bust out the galoshes and spades.  It's a frustrating, tough time of year.

And we love to complain about it.

However, the snowfall we get in the spring is massively critical for our western ecosystems.  Dennis Knight, retired now from the University of Wyoming's Botany department, wrote in his book Mountains and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes about the importance of snowfall in the spring.  Though he doesn't mention it makes people crabby and morose, he does explain:

"Rain that occurs during warm periods may evaoprate quickly, sometimes even before it can infiltrate the soil.  ... In contrast, snow usually accumulates during the winter, when evaporation is minimal.  In the spring, when accumulated snow melts during a short period when the potential for evapotransiration (ET) is low.  Consequently, the water is more likely to penetrate deeply into the soil."

Prairie ecosystems, with plants characterized by deep root systems, rely on slow, drawn-out (and somewhat annoying) melt water from snow - not just from rain - for maximum water uptake.  

Drought is massively prevalent throughout the country, and very noticeable in the mountain west where forest fires result.  So we can either complain about drought, or complain about snow in spring, but not both.

I think there's a quote about cake that would fit here.

Anyway, summer is just around the corner, and we'll all be ready for it!

Written by Brenna Marsicek, Biodiversity Institute

Kicking Off Spring

Welcome back to the Berry Prairie!  After a nice, long winter, we are keeping our eyes on the ground in anticipation of the spring green up.  Last spring, our first plant that flowered was the Draba - and it flowered on March 30!  This year, it's been cooler and most plants are still dormant, not even close to flowering.

For the Newbies

For those of your new to this blog, a little background.  The Berry Prairie is a green roof atop the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center in Laramie, Wyoming.  It was installed in June 2010 after the construction of the Berry Center, with the intent of maximizing climate control of the Vertebrate Collection below.  

Unlike many green roofs that have 1 or 2 species of sedum, this green roof was designed to mimic a native Wyoming prairie, so all of the 62 species of plants found on the roof are native to 25ish miles around Laramie.  Just like prairies around Laramie, the majority of the individual plants are grasses.  However, there are 44 species of wildflowers in the green roof - quite diverse indeed!

Class Kicks off the Visitor Season

A class at the University of Wyoming, Principle of Range Management, taught by Dr. Melanie Murphy, was one of the first groups to visit the Berry Prairie this year.  They spent time surveying the Prairie for vegetation types, signs of erosion, soil surface, and other range-type factors.  The green roof is one of multiple sites the class is surveying, and data from each year's class will be collated and appended to a long-term database of information. 

There are other groups planning to come to the Berry Prairie this spring, and of course all visitors are welcome - staying on the path is required!  Come find us in Berry Center 231 if you have any questions, we'd love to chat!

Written by Brenna Marsicek, Biodiversity Institute

Winter Adieu

The Berry Prairie has been dormant for a while now, as a result of cooler temperatures and very little precip (we still only have 6.86" for the year!  That's down approx. 5" from our average - learn more).

So despite the warmish weather we're experiencing (54.5 degrees F right now!), we'll bid you adieu for the winter.  Check back in the spring when plants start to awaken - are you as curious as we are to see what will survive the winter, after this hectic and stressful growing season?

Maybe the green roof will look something like this:

Hopefully the roof won't look something like this:

Though ideally, it will more likely look something like this:

Stay tuned!

Written by Brenna Wanous Marsicek

 

Berry Prairie Weather

In the beginning of January 2012, we installed a weather station on the northeast corner of the Berry Prairie.  We wanted to be able to measure precipitation, wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc. so we could track this information for years to come.

Holy Data!

The data is very detailed - the weather station takes 26 types of measurements every half hour of every single day!  Those measurements include wind speed, direction and highs, temperature outside, inside, highs and lows, humidity, dew point, wind chill, heat index, precipitation, degree days, and the list goes on.  The image below is a snapshot of the spreadsheet containing all of the data.  What you see is only 83 of 28,190 rows - and that's only for 10 months!  

We're able to put this data into graphic form.  The graph below shows temperature (red line) and precipitation (blue columns) for every half hour of every day of each month since January.
  

Why keep weather data?

Good question.  baseline data in case someone 100 years from now wants to know what the climate in Laramie, Wyoming was like in our present times.  And it's handy for research projects done all across campus and beyond.  In fact, we're using this data for a research project studying the microclimate on the green roof compared with other sites in the area.  More on that soon!

We're happy to share our weather data - contact berryctr@uwyo.edu if you want more information!

Written by Brenna Wanous Marsicek