Marmot Creek Research Basin Workshop

University of Calgary Biogeoscience Institute, Barrier Lake Field Station, Kananaskis Country, AB 
21 - 22 February, 2013

Marmot Creek Research Basin in the Kananaskis Valley, Alberta was established as an experimental basin in 1962 by the Canadian and Alberta Governments. It became an outdoor research laboratory to examine the principles of mountain hydrology and how forest management could be used to influence streamflow generation. Research flourished for 25 years and provided the basis for a better understanding of hydrology, hydrochemistry and forest management that influenced headwater basin management for many years. In 2004, the basin was reactivated by the University of Saskatchewan, University of Calgary and Environment Canada and has since been the subject of process hydrology, climatology, ecohydrology and hydrological modelling research that is underpinning the next generation of hydrological models and forest management strategies. The Coldwater Laboratory was established in 2009 at the University of Calgary Barrier Lake Field Station to maintain intensive research in the basin. The long term record of high altitude streamflow, precipitation, snowpack, groundwater, vegetation and mountain meteorology observations in Marmot Creek makes it a unique laboratory for understanding and assessing environmental change in the Canadian Rockies.

This workshop celebrates the half-century of knowledge and technology that has derived from Marmot Creek, to review the challenges, designs and results of the early research period and of the recent period, and to anticipate and plan for future science in the basin.

Talks and poster papers cover;
1. reviews of observations, expectations and management for the experimental basin 1962-1987
2. results of field and modelling studies in the basin
3. changes that have been observed or modelled in the basin over time
4. forest management and policy implications of research in Marmot Creek.
5. future studies and plans for Marmot Creek.

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