The 8th Symposium on Education

P1.44
INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE ON THE VEGETATION AND HYDROLOGY OF THE OLIVER CREEK BASIN OF THE CLOUD PEAK WILDERNESS AREA IN WYOMING

Deirdre Mandryk, State College Area High School, State College, PA; and D. J. Scherba, M. Acquistapace, and E. Roose

During the summer of 1998 an international research team of 23 students from the United States and Scotland will be conducting field work in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. The research will concern the energy budget, and the effects of climate on the hydrology of the valley.
We will be studying the diurnal cycle of surface meteorological parameters and their effects on the microclimate. We will also address the implications of the meteorological microclimate for the vegetation in the valley. To facilitate these and other group studies, measurements of radiative fluxes, cloud cover, and the major meteorological variables of temperature, precipitation, air pressure, relative humidity wind speed and wind direction will be taken. These variables all play an important role on the climatology and biological processes of the area. A minimum of two and possibly three meteorological stations will be erected in the valley to record the data.
Following the three week field phase of the study reports will be written determining the interrelationship between climatology and weather on the vegetation regimes, stream morphology and biology.

The 8th Symposium on Education