Building upon successful collaborative studies within the basin, this USGS-PSU collaborative study will utilize a novel spatial statistical approach in combination with DTS to determine: 1) locations of watershed attributes that control spatio-temporal variations of stream temperature with different degrees of disturbance; 2) degree to which beaver restoration and riparian shading affect stream temperature; and 3) the effectiveness of DTS technology combined with a distance weighted spatial algorithm in detecting thermal dynamics in study streams.

We will collect both spatial (land cover, topography, management related) and temporal factors (solar radiation, air temperature, streamflow) affecting the spatiotemporal variation of stream temperature. We will conduct two different levels of analysis - 1) a broad analysis of the whole basin with each sub-basin as a unit of analysis and 2) a detailed analysis of three sub-basins with reach as a unit of analysis.