LTREB: Abrupt Climate Change at High Altitudes and its Ecological Consequences

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Crested Butte CO

Investigators

Abstract

Experiments and observations will be used to study the effects of global and regional climate change at high altitudes in the Colorado Rocky Mountains over the next five years. This study, initiated in 1973, now provides one of the longest and most detailed datasets available for snowfall, the timing and abundance of flowering by wildflowers, the emergence of animals from hibernation, and the arrival of migratory birds in the spring. The 1998 phase change of the North Pacific Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean appears to have triggered a change in snowfall, and the consequences for plants and animals appear to be significant. This new phase may last for the next two decades, and initial results suggest that it is having significant effects on the ecology of the Rocky Mountains. The researchers will continue a study where heaters are used to simulate global warming, and demographic responses by the wildflower populations measured. Broader impacts of this research are that it will provide a long-term dataset on effects of climate change for an ecosystem that should be particularly sensitive to such changes, it will train both graduate and undergraduate students, and support continued efforts to communicate research results to the public.