Effects of Climate Change in the Colorado Alpine

该项目是科罗拉多大学长期生态研究项目的第三阶段。它建立在对高山过程和模式的研究基础上，这些过程和模式与项目第一阶段和第二阶段进行的干扰有关。将继续在尼沃特岭和绿湖谷进行实地研究，并在科罗拉多前山脉更广泛的地区进行选定的研究。本研究的目的是了解积雪和夏季降水对生态系统过程和景观格局的影响，并利用这一认识来预测对气候变化的响应。中心假设是积雪或降雨制度的交替将导致高寒生态系统过程和模式在站点和区域尺度上的变化。高山苔原通常被认为对气候变化很敏感，并且在冰川消融后的12000年里对气候变化做出了反应。这种敏感性的原因是其生产力低，养分循环紧密，在许多植物过程中处于极端状态。在该项目的第三阶段，重点将放在生态系统过程和模式的进一步实验研究及其建模，作为预测变化的夏季降水模式和夏季降水模式影响的手段。特别是规模方面的考虑将强调分层方法。遥感将用于沿海拔和气候梯度检查前山脉的区域初级生产力，并促进从尼沃特岭的主要研究地点向其他高山地区的外推。这一主题源于第一阶段的主题，第一阶段的前提是目前的高山生态系统反映了过去的气候条件；第二阶段的主题侧重于冻土带系统的复原力和抵抗力。从这项早期工作中获得的许多数据库将对我们的第三阶段研究至关重要，并将在未来六年内保持。

This project represents a third phase of the University of Colorado Long-Term Ecological Research program. It builds upon research in alpine processes and patterns related to disturbance conducted during Phase I and Phase II of the program. Field studies will be continued at Niwot Ridge and in the Green Lakes Valley with selected studies in the wider region of the Colorado Front Range. The goal of this research is to understand the influence of snowpack and summer precipitation on ecosystem processes and landscape patterns and to use this understanding to predict responses to climate change. The central hypothesis is that alternation of snowpack or rainfall regimes will cause changes in alpine ecosystem processes and patterns at site and regional scale. The alpine tundra is often thought to be sensitive to climate change and is known to have responded to such changes in the 12,000 years since deglaciation. The reasons for this sensitivity are its low productivity and tight nutrient cycling and its situation at an extreme for many plant processes. In Phase III of this project emphasis will be place on further experimental studies of ecosystem processes and patterns and their modeling as a means of predicting the effects of altered showpack and summer precipitation patterns. In particular, scale considerations will be emphasized hierarchical approach. Remote sensing will be used to examine regional primary productivity along elevational and climatic gradients in the Front Range and to facilitate extrapolation from the primary study site at Niwot Ridge to other alpine areas. This theme derives from that of Phase I, which was based on the premise that present alpine ecosystems reflect past climatic conditions and Phase II, which focuses on the resilience and resistance of tundra systems. Many of the databases derived from this earlier work will be crucial to our Phase III research and will be maintained for the next six years.