Single-point CLM simulations with hillslope hydrology at Niwot Ridge, CO

In this study, we ran ecosystem-scale Community Land Model (CLM) simulations with a novel hillslope hydrology configuration to represent topographically heterogeneous alpine tundra vegetation across a moisture gradient at Niwot Ridge, Colorado, USA. We used local observations to evaluate our simulations and investigated the role of topography and aspect in mediating patterns of snow, productivity, soil moisture and temperature, as well as the potential exposure to climate change across an alpine tundra hillslope.

This dataset contains output files from single-point CLM simulations with the hillslope hydrology for the manuscript titled 'Topographic Heterogeneity and Aspect Moderate Exposure to Climate Change Across an Alpine Tundra Hillslope'. Local observations from Niwot Ridge, CO were used to force and evaluate these simulations to represent alpine tundra vegetation across a moisture gradient.

Our control simulations were modified to represent a site at Niwot Ridge referred to as the 'Saddle', with an east and west facing knoll and a lowland area between them. Three columns represent distinct moist, wet, and dry meadow vegetation communities. We used the same model setup to run additional experiments on north- and south-facing slopes. Simulations were run using input data from 2008-2021 (historical) and then extended to year 2100 (future) using an anomaly forcing protocol.