{"title":"Blacktail Deer Creek NEON - United States of America","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/","suffix":"1b4a6b6c-45f0-4d58-8707-fbac095eed0f"},"type":"site","created":"2020-05-25T09:36:50+02:00","changed":"2025-09-19T09:28:53+02:00","attributes":{"affiliation":{"networks":[{"network":{"name":"GERI","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/networks\/","suffix":"c3abdc60-49f1-49db-81fe-863b7dbb21d3"}},"siteCode":null,"verified":true},{"network":{"name":"NEON","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/networks\/","suffix":"fd9fbc88-0baa-4d02-b824-dc29f721782c"}},"siteCode":"BLDE","verified":true}],"projects":null},"contact":{"siteManager":[{"type":"person","name":"Amy Jacobs","email":"ajacobs@battelleecology.o","orcid":null}],"operatingOrganisation":null,"metadataProvider":[{"type":"person","name":"Melissa Marquez","email":"marquez@battelleecology.org","orcid":null}],"fundingAgency":null,"siteUrl":[{"title":null,"value":"https:\/\/www.neonscience.org\/field-sites\/blde"}]},"general":{"abstract":"Blacktail Deer Creek (BLDE) is an aquatic NEON field site located in Yellowstone National Park. It is 100 km (62 mi.) southeast of Bozeman, MT, just south of the Wyoming-Montana state line. It is hosted by the National Park Service. BLDE is a small perennial stream that flows through the northern part of Yellowstone National Park and into the Yellowstone River east of Mammoth Hot Springs. The creek flows through relatively open terrain, with a dense riparian willow canopy on the stream banks, and drains a watershed of 37.81 km2 (8100 acres). It is shallow with clear water and has the potential to flood during snowmelt and heavy rainfall events. The area is visited by tourists and fisherman regularly during the summer. BLDE is highly representative of a wildland area in NEON\u0027s Northern Rockies Domain (D12). The trophic structure and community interactions are probably more representative of those that were widespread in the region before Euro-American influence than any other place in the Domain. Thus, the site offers a rare opportunity to understand interactions among climate, natural disturbance, ecosystem processes, and community structure in integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems that are representative of those of intact wildlands across the Domain. Domain 12 comprises the northern part of the Rocky Mountain Range in western Montana, Idaho and northwestern Wyoming. D12 has two colocated field sites: BLDE and the YELL terrestrial site. ","citation":null,"relatedIdentifiers":null,"status":{"label":"Operational","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/elter_cl\/10772"},"yearEstablished":2018,"yearClosed":null,"relatedSites":[{"typeOfRelationship":{"label":"groups with","uri":"null"},"listOfSites":[{"type":"site","title":"Yellowstone National Park NEON - United States of America","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/","suffix":"942f7e22-f099-4dd0-a586-ffcbb1d3d530"},"changed":"2025-09-18T14:09:39+0200"}]}],"siteName":"Blacktail Deer Creek NEON","shortName":"BLDE","siteType":"Platform","protectionLevel":null,"landUse":null,"images":[{"url":"https:\/\/deims.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-06\/48750979023_1366acab8e_b.jpg","alt":"Discharge sampling at BLDE"},{"url":"https:\/\/deims.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-06\/48751494452_faf840055a_b.jpg","alt":"Blacktail Creek in October"}]},"environmentalCharacteristics":{"airTemperature":{"yearlyAverage":3.6,"monthlyAverage":null,"unit":"\u00b0C","referencePeriod":null},"precipitation":{"yearlyAverage":481,"monthlyAverage":null,"unit":"mm","referencePeriod":null},"biogeographicalRegion":null,"biome":"freshwater_rivers","ecosystemType":[{"label":"Fresh Water Rivers","uri":null},{"label":"Rivers","uri":null}],"eunisHabitat":null,"landforms":null,"geoBonBiome":["Fresh water rivers"],"geology":"Yellowstone National Park contains geologic features that are the results of volcanism, glaciation, and geological processes fueled by a continental hotspot. The park encompasses the Yellowstone caldera as well as the fault-block mountain ranges that surround the caldera to the northeast and southwest. BLDE is located on the Blacktail Deer Plateau between the Gallatin and Washburn mountain ranges. The geology underlying BLDE includes mostly undivided alluvium, colluvium, and glacial and landslide deposits with some rhyolite flows, tuff, and intrusive igneous rocks. Geomorphic attributes of Blacktail Deer Creek include riffle-pool sections with a medium to large cobble sediment regime and clear water.","hydrology":"Blacktail Deer Creek is a small stream that drains a 37.8 km2 (14.6 sq. mi.) watershed. Flow records from an inactive United States Geological Survey gauge on Blacktail Deer Creek next to the NEON aquatic site show mean annual flow ranging from 4 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 13 cfs and peak stream flow ranging from 37 cfs to 198 cfs (period record of 1938\u20131993). Snowmelt dominates seasonal patterns in the surface water regime of Blacktail Deer Creek. Warming temperatures in late spring (May-June) causes the heavy snowpack to melt and discharge to consequently rise until peak flow, typically in June and July. After this point, discharge steadily falls until September, after which base flows remain relatively low and stable until the following spring melt. Discharge rarely, if ever, reaches zero. ","soils":"Soils in BLDE consist of Cryaquolls and Histosols Undifferentiated Group. These soils are medium- to fine-textured sandy loam, loam, and loamy sands formed in aquatic environments; sand loams, sandy clayey loams, and loams formed in glacial till and alluvium (Shook Family-Badwater Family-Passcreek Family Complex); and loams formed in till and alluvium derived from volcanic rocks (Gallatin Family). These soil types make up 100% of the soil in the BLDE site.","vegetation":"The riparian canopy is dominated by willows (Salix spp.). Vegetation at the site is composed of short grasses in the fields surrounding the stream and a dense corridor of cottonwoods and briar bushes at the streams edge. Understory vegetation also consists of roses and grasses. The upstream portion of the stream has some surrounding lodgepole pines that have been burned in a forest fire (not recent). Some of these trees have fallen across the stream and obstruct flow in the channel."},"geographic":{"boundaries":null,"coordinates":"POINT (-110.58715 44.95011)","country":["United States of America"],"elevation":{"avg":2053,"min":1847,"max":2244,"unit":"msl"},"size":{"value":3780,"unit":"ha"},"relatedLocations":null},"focusDesignScale":{"experiments":{"design":"mainly experimentation","scale":"beyond catchment scale"},"observations":{"design":"mainly observation","scale":"entire catchment"},"observedProperties":[{"label":"DNA sequence","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/21400"},{"label":"genetic parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20942"},{"label":"land cover","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22142"},{"label":"landscape parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20943"},{"label":"water parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20945"},{"label":"water quality","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22312"}]},"infrastructure":{"accessibleAllYear":true,"accessType":null,"allPartsAccessible":null,"maintenanceInterval":null,"permanentPowerSupply":true,"operation":{"permanent":true,"notes":null,"siteVisitInterval":null},"notes":null,"collection":null,"data":{"policy":{"url":null,"rights":null,"notes":null}}},"relatedResources":null,"projectRelated":{"lter":{"lterSiteClassification":null}}}}