Shita Wadi - Israel

A small watershed that collects floods and run-off. The lowest place is home to a (relativity) dense Acacia savana. The slopes are completely bare. The wadi is covered with alluvium resting on a 6 m layer of red surface of late Pleistocene, which includes silt, clay and fine sand. Rainfall is 30 mm

Last modified

2021-11-23 11:11:46

General Characteristics and Status

Site Status

Operational

Year Established

2015

Observed properties

Photos

Wadi Shita LTER from drone

Wadi Shita Acacia raddiana trees

Butterflies monitoring

Flood Wadi Shita

Scorpio maurus

Tree Dendrometer Wadi Shita

Geographic

View in site map

Elevation (average)

250.00msl

Elevation (min)

240.00msl

Elevation (max)

260.00msl

Affiliation and Network Specific Information

Affiliation

Download

Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml]

Site Details

Ecosystem and Environmental Characteristics

GEO-BON Biome

Terrestrial

Biome

Desert

Ecosystem Type

EUNIS habitat

Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G)

Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G) » Broadleaved deciduous woodland (G1)

Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G) » Broadleaved deciduous woodland (G1) » Thermophilous deciduous woodland (G1.7)

Air Temperature: Average Annual

18.00°C

Precipitation Annual

30.00mm

Geology

The Wadi (Valley) is the first towards south from the highest point in the Arava, Notza ridge which is 250 MASL.
It flows west to east, although in the past (2.5 MYA) the direction of flow was east to west. It ends in Ka Saidin salt flat. There are sedementry rocks from the upper creteacous of Mashash and Menuha formations. The wadi is unique in having a layer from an early pleistocen called the "red unit".

Vegetation

Since this is a hyper-arid area the only vascullar

Soils

The wadi has a unique "red unit" that is fine grained, with carbonate from an early pleistocen. Teh red unit sits in the low areas of the wadi where soil moisture is highest. There is conglomorate with small pebbles and fine greain forming reg soil. There is a gypsum concentration in carbonate clusters. The aluvium is young creteacous.

Hydrology

The watershed is 24 square KM in a braided stream pattern. Its maximum width is 3 km, the top layer is young aluvium. Some of the streams are active and others are neglected (by water). The number of active streams depends on the power of the flood. Rainfall is around 30 mm per yea, but has been going down in the last few decades. between 1993-2009 flood frequency has dropped to almost half.

Type, Design and Scale

Site Type

Platform

Design of Experimentation

partly experimentation

Scale of Experimentation

plot scale

Design of Observation

mainly observation

Scale of Observation

entire catchment

Equipment

Permanent Power Supply

Operation

Accessible All Year

Yes

All parts of Site Accessible

Yes

Access Type

regular car

Permanent Operation

Yes

Site Visit Interval

Maintenance Interval

Data Management

General Data Policy

The opportunity to review the results based on the dataset

Network related information

LTER Site Classification

Regular

Related Resources on DEIMS-SDR

Additional data

There is EURO-CORDEX climate scenario data available for this site:

Projected Near Surface Specific Humidity Change	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Precipitation Change	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Sea Level Pressure Change	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Surface Downwelling Shortwave Radiation	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Wind Speed	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Air Temperature	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Daily Maximum Near-Surface Air Temperature	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85
Projected Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air Temperature	RCP26	RCP45	RCP85

You can also download the entire climate scenario dataset for this site from the EUDAT B2SHARE data store.