美国农业部西南流域研究中心新楼在 Tucson 揭幕：15,650平方英尺，与亚利桑那大学合作支撑干旱区流域研究
美国农业部（USDA）10月27日宣布，农业研究局（ARS）西南流域研究中心（Southwest Watershed Research Center）位于亚利桑那州 Tucson 的新研究楼正式揭幕。新楼面积15,650平方英尺，与亚利桑那大学合作共建，为该中心在干旱、半干旱地区的土壤与水资源研究提供实验室与协作空间。
西南流域研究中心成立于1961年，总部设在 Tucson，其户外实验室是位于 Tombstone 附近的 Walnut Gulch 实验流域：观测始于1953年，是全球仪器布设最密集的半干旱实验流域，流域内97台雨量计以一分钟间隔记录降雨，另有9座小型与10座大型的量水堰测量径流，数十年的长期数据支撑着美国西部数以万计无观测流域的水文研究。
农业部长 Brooke Rollins 与农业研究局局长 Joon Park 出席揭幕。农业部表示，新楼将支持该中心与亚利桑那大学等伙伴的合作研究，方向包括半干旱区的水循环、土壤侵蚀与流域管理，研究成果供农牧场主与土地管理机构使用。
该中心的研究还延伸到亚利桑那州东南部的 San Pedro 河流域与亚利桑那大学 Santa Rita 实验牧场，是美国农业部长期农业生态系统研究网络（LTAR）的组成部分，其使命是为半干旱地区的水、植物与土壤管理开发知识与技术。
USDA Opens New Southwest Watershed Research Center Facility in Tucson: 15,650 Square Feet in Partnership with the University of Arizona
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on October 27 that a new research facility for the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, has officially opened. The 15,650-square-foot building, developed in partnership with the University of Arizona, provides laboratory and collaboration space for the center's research on soil and water resources in arid and semiarid regions.
Established in 1961 and headquartered in Tucson, the Southwest Watershed Research Center runs its outdoor laboratory at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed near Tombstone, where measurements began in 1953. It is the most densely instrumented long-term semiarid experimental watershed in the world: 97 rain gauges record precipitation at one-minute intervals, and nine small flumes and ten large flumes measure runoff, producing decades of long-term data that support hydrologic research across tens of thousands of ungauged watersheds in the western United States.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and ARS Administrator Joon Park attended the opening. The department said the new building will support the center's collaborative research with partners including the University of Arizona, covering the water cycle, soil erosion and watershed management in semiarid lands, with results serving farmers, ranchers and land-management agencies.
The center's research also extends to the San Pedro River Basin in southeastern Arizona and the University of Arizona's Santa Rita Experimental Range, and it is part of USDA's Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network. Its mission is to develop knowledge and technology for sound management of water, plants and soil in semiarid regions.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：图：亚利桑那州索诺拉沙漠牧场（Ironwood Forest 国家纪念地，Tucson 西北）。美国土地管理局亚利桑那州办公室（BLMArizona）发布，公共领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Sonoran Desert rangeland at Ironwood Forest National Monument, northwest of Tucson, Arizona. By BLMArizona, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
