[Illustration: FIG. 9: (above) Photograph of microclimatic shelter
built to house hygrothermograph. False top minimizes heating, and
ventilation holes are covered with screening. (below) Photograph
showing shelter in use.]
Accuracy of the hair elements was checked by means of a Bendix-Friez
battery driven psychrometer, in periods when humidity conditions were
stable (on clear days the relative humidity is at its lowest limits and
is "stable" for several hours during early afternoon).
The four microclimatic stations were in the following places: 1) a stand
of big sagebrush near Far View Ruins; 2) a pinyon-juniper-muttongrass
association; 3) a stand of big sagebrush at the head of a drainage; and
4) a stand of Gambel oak on a southwest-facing slope of the drainage.
Table 4 shows monthly averages of maximum and minimum air temperatures
and relative humidities at each of the four sites. Vegetation and
microclimates of the sites are discussed below.
_Far View Sagebrush Site, 7,650 feet elevation_
The shelter housing the hygrothermograph was next to the stake of
station F4a in the trapping grid (Fig. 10), in a stand of big sagebrush
on the flat, middle part of the mesa top, approximately 100 yards
southwest of Far View Ruins. The sagebrush extends approximately 200
feet in all directions from the station (Fig. 5). Pinyon pine and Utah
juniper trees are encroaching upon this area, and scattered trees are
present throughout the sagebrush. This area is one of the habitats of
_P. maniculatus_.
Sagebrush tends to provide less shade for the ground than pinyon-juniper
woodland, and therefore the surface temperatures of the soil rise
rapidly to their daily maximum. In mid-June, air temperatures rise
rapidly from 6 A. M. until they reach the daily maximum between 2 and 4
P. M. Shortly after 4 P. M. the air temperatures decrease rapidly and
reach the daily low by about 5 A. M.
Relative humidities follow an inverse relationship to air temperatures;
when air temperatures are highest, relative humidities approach their
lowest values. Thus, on clear days, humidities decrease during the day,
reaching a minimum slightly later than air temperatures attain their
maximum. Unless it rains, the highest humidities of the day occur
between midnight and 6 A. M.
_Drainage Site, 7,625 feet elevation_
This site was in the bottom of the drainage that runs through the
eastern side of the trapping grid, and through parts of units M, N, I,
and J. The site was at station M4d on a level bench at the head of the
drainage (Fig. 11). Southward from the station the drainage deepens
rapidly, and the bottom loses approximately 25 feet in elevation for
every 200 feet of linear distance. _P. maniculatus_ lives here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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