Red Butte Creek NEON - United States of America

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https://deims.org/49d06c87-07ea-45b6-8762-fcc4989890de

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Basic Information
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Site Name
Red Butte Creek NEON
Short name
REDB
Country
United States of America
Web Address
https://www.neonscience.org/field-sites/redb
Site Manager
Amy Jacobs
Site Description
Red Butte Creek (REDB) is an aquatic NEON field site located just east of Salt Lake City, UT near Fort Douglas. It is a second-order wadeable stream. The stream reach is located upstream of the Red Butte Reservoir and a U.S. Geological Survey gaging station. The stream is confined within a steep canyon drainage basin in the southwestern Rocky Mountains and drains a 16.7 km2 (4130 acre) watershed. REDB is managed by the United States Forest Service and the University of Utah. The site is part of NEON's Great Basin Domain (D15), which is bordered by the Sierra Nevada to the west, the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau to the east, the Mojave Desert to the south, and the Columbia Plateau to the north. D15 has one other field site, the terrestrial site ONAQ.
Last modified
2025-09-18 15:50:21

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
2017
Observed properties
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
GERI✔This site is a verified "GERI" member.
NEON✔ (REDB)This site is a verified "NEON" member.
Photos
REDB ice crystals in stream
REDB ice crystals in stream
REDB Spring Flow 2017
REDB Spring Flow 2017
Geographic
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 40.78374 Longitude: -111.79765

Size
ca. 180.00ha
Elevation (average)
1694.00msl
Elevation (min)
1524.00msl
Elevation (max)
2499.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
GEO-BON Biome
Fresh water rivers
Biome
Deciduous Forest
Ecosystem Type
Agricultural
Forest
Deciduous Forest
Air Temperature: Average Annual
7.70°C
Precipitation Annual
751.00mm
Geology
The geology of Red Butte Creek ranges from recent Holocene deposits to 360 million years old Mississippian rocks. Younger deposits are unconsolidated and derive mostly from landslides or stream-deposited alluvium. The majority of deposits at Red Butte Creek consist of shales and siltstones.
Vegetation
Abundant hardwood trees and willows surround Red Butte Creek. Grasses and shrubs comprise the understory. Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is the dominant type of vegetation throughout the altitudinal range of Red Butte Canyon. Both walls of the canyon support often nearly impenetrable oak in association with bigtooth maple (Acer grandidentatum), the latter growing chiefly in drainage-ways. Few species thrive as understory with dense oak cover. The most common are catchweed bedstraw (Galium aparine) and Oregon grape (Mahonia repens). Others appearing seasonally under oak are dogtooth violet (Erythronium grandiflorum), lanceleaf spring beauty (Claytonia lanceolata), ballhead waterleaf (Hydrophyllum capitatum), and western waterleaf (H. occidentale).
Soils
Dominant soil series at the site: Harkers-Wallsburg association, steep. The taxonomy of this soil is Order: Mollisols; Suborder: Xerolls; Great group: Palexerolls-Argixerolls; Subgroup: Typic Palexerolls-Lithic Argixerolls; Family: Fine, smectitic, frigid Typic Palexerolls-Clayey-skeletal, smectitic, frigid Lithic Argixerolls; Series: Harkers-Wallsburg association, steep.
Hydrology
Red Butte Creek is a snowmelt-dominated system, and thus has a flow regime with large peak flows during spring and early summer. Often, the flows increase by a factor of 10 during spring snowmelt. Hydrograph fluctuations are driven by this snowmelt. During base flow conditions, stream widths are typically <2 m (<6.5 ft.) and depth <0.5 m (<1.6 ft.).
Site Type
Platform
Design of Experimentation
mainly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
catchment scale
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
entire catchment
Permanent Power Supply
Yes
Accessible All Year
Yes
Permanent Operation
Yes