Preliminary analyses and comparisons of sediment yield data from the New Mexico LTER site (Jornada site)

This is a report on the preliminary analyses of water and sediment yield data collected at the Jornada LTER site north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The report is intended to serve two purposes: to supply LTER personnel a general overview of the data collected to date in order to facilitate future experimental plans, and to provide a summary of the data for those involved in water and sediment studies at other LTER sites. The analyses are limited in scope to those data provided by LTER experiments, both ongoing and as completed by two graduate students. Numerous statistical tests and comparisons were conducted on the data sets in order to determine similarities, differences, and functional relationships where they existed. We used the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) on the New Mexico State University (NMSU) IBM 3081D mainframe computer to summarize and analyze the data. The three data sets we used were collected by Elkins (1983) for his Ph.D degree, by Bach (1984) for her M.S. degree, and by LTER personnel in an ongoing study (W.G. Whitford, Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, unpublished data). We analyzed 385 plot events (number of times measurements were taken from a plot), with 272 of these supplied by LTER personnel. A detailed analysis is provided in the analysis section of this report.