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

实验和观测将用于研究未来五年内全球和区域气候变化对科罗拉多落基山脉高海拔地区的影响。 这项研究始于1973年，现在提供了降雪，野花开花的时间和数量，冬眠动物的出现以及春季候鸟的到来的最长和最详细的数据集之一。 1998年太平洋北太平洋涛动的相位变化似乎引发了降雪量的变化，对植物和动物的影响似乎很大。这一新阶段可能会持续20年，初步结果表明，它对落基山脉的生态产生了重大影响。研究人员将继续进行一项研究，使用加热器来模拟全球变暖，并测量野花种群的人口反应。 这项研究的更广泛的影响是，它将为对这种变化特别敏感的生态系统提供关于气候变化影响的长期数据集，它将培训研究生和本科生，并支持继续努力向公众传播研究结果。

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.