Effects of Climate Change in the Colorado Alpine

气候变化对科罗拉多高山的影响

• 批准号: 9011658
• 负责人: T. Nelson Caine
• 金额: $ 97.14万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-01-15 至 1993-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9011658&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Effects; Climate; Change; Colorado; Alpine

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.

该项目代表了科罗拉多大学长期生态研究计划的第三阶段。 它建立在高山过程的研究和与该计划的第一阶段和第二阶段进行的干扰有关的模式的基础上。 Niwot Ridge和绿湖谷将继续进行现场研究，并在科罗拉多州前山脉更广泛的地区进行了精选研究。 这项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模式的影响，并利用这种理解来预测对气候变化的反应。 中心假设是，积雪或降雨状况的交替会导致高山生态系统过程和现场和区域规模的模式变化。 高山苔原通常被认为对气候变化很敏感，并且众所周知，在脱气以来的12，000年中对这种变化做出了反应。 这种敏感性的原因是其生产率低下，营养循环紧密，以及在许多工厂过程中极端的情况。 在该项目的第三阶段中，重点将进行对生态系统过程和模式的进一步实验研究及其建模，以此作为预测变化的Showpack和夏季降水模式的影响的手段。 特别是，规模考虑将被强调层次结构方法。 遥感将用于检查前范围内海拔和气候梯度的区域主要生产力，并促进从Niwot Ridge的主要研究地点外推到其他高山地区。 该主题源于第一阶段的主题，该主题基于目前的高山生态系统反映了过去的气候条件和II期，该生态系统的重点是苔原系统的韧性和抵抗力。 从这项较早的工作中得出的许多数据库对于我们的第三阶段研究至关重要，并将在未来六年内维持。