Center for Conservation Biology

Located at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve (jamesreserve@ucr.edu), part of the University of California Natural Reserve System, is a mixed conifer forest with dominant tree species of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson), sugar pine (P. lambertiana Douglas), incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens (Torr.) Florin), canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis Liebm.), and deciduous black oak (Q. kelloggii Newberry). We currently have four AMR units taking daily images in the forest and meadow sites along with 11 sensor networks. They are described in Allen et al. 2007, Vargas and Allen 2008, Rundel et al 2009, Vargas et al. 2010a, b.

The goal of this study was to monitor below ground fine root production using minirhizotrons and to estimate carbon flux using an array of below and above-ground sensor net work (see metadata file). The study site was located at the James Reserve University of California Nature Preserve, Riverside County, California, USA (jamesreserve@ucr.edu). The site is a mixed conifer forest with dominant tree species of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson), sugar pine (P. lambertiana Douglas), incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens (Torr.) Florin), canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis Liebm.), and deciduous black oak (Q. kelloggii Newberry). We have been monitoring microclimate every five minutes and root production at least every two weeks since 2005. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (EF-0410408 and CRR-0120778).