Daily rainfall, stream discharge and hydraulic conductivity of soils from catchments dominated by different vegetation types, Western Ghats, India, 2014-2016

Data are presented for daily rainfall, stream discharge and hydraulic conductivity of soils from catchments located in the Upper Nilgiris Reserve Forest in the state of Tamil Nadu. The catchments are dominated by four land cover types, shola, grassland, pine and wattle. The data were collected between May 2014 and December 2016. Tipping bucket wired rain gauges were used to measure rainfall. Stream discharge was measured from stilling wells and capacitance probe-based water level recorders. A mini-disk infiltrometer was used to measure the hydraulic conductivity of soils. Dry season data has not been included in this dataset as its focus is on extreme rain events.

The data were collected as part of a series of eco-hydrology projects that explored the impact of land cover on rain-runoff response, carbon sequestration and nutrient and sediment discharge.

The dataset presented here was collected by a team of three to five researchers and field assistants who were engaged in the installation of the data loggers and their regular operation and maintenance. Four research agencies have partnered across multiple projects to sustain the data collection efforts that started in June 2013 and continue (June 2020). These are the Foundation for Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning - Pondicherry, the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment - Bangalore, the Lancaster Environmental Centre, Lancaster University - UK, and the National Centre for Biological Sciences - Bangalore. Funding was provided by Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India from the Changing Water Cycle programme (Grant Ref: MoES/NERC/16/02/10 PC-II) and the Hydrologic footprint of Invasive Alien Species project (MOES/PAMC/H&C/85/2016-PC-II). Additional funding was provided by UKRI Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/I022450/1 (Western Ghats-Capacity within the NERC Changing Water Cycle programme) and WWF-India as part of the Noyyal-Bhavani program.This research took place inside protected areas in the Nilgiri Division for which permissions and support were provided continually by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, particularly the office of the District Forest Officer, Udhagamandalam.