Lower Teakettle NEON - United States of America

Lower Teakettle (TEAK) has been designated as one of two relocatable terrestrial sites for the Pacific Southwest domain 17. The core aquatic site, Teakettle Creek, is just south of the terrestrial site. Teakettle is located 80 km east of Fresno, CaliforniaLower Teakettle is part of the Sierra National Forest, federal public land administered by the U.S. Forest Service. The southernmost portion of TEAK overlaps with the Teakettle Experimental Forest, managed by the Pacific Southwest Research Station, which represents the Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D). Although research at the Experimental Forest historically focused on watershed management and climate science, more recent topics have investigated the effects of fire and thinning treatments on mixed conifer ecosystems. Long-term databases include streamflow and sedimentation, bird census data, and snag distribution and turnover. The Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory maintains a flux tower at Shorthair Creek, the subalpine belt of a tower transect which also includes infrastructure at SJER and SOAP. The Critical Zone Observatory collects data on water, carbon and nutrient cycling across the rain-snow transition in the southern Sierra Nevada.