Collaborative Research: Mountain Meadow Restoration with a Changing Climate

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Loheide, Steven P., PIUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonCBET-0729838Lundquist, Jessica D., PIUniversity of WashingtonCBET-0729830Collaborative Research: Mountain Meadow Restoration with a Changing ClimateCindy M. Lee, Program Director, (703) 292-5356 Climate change will affect restoration engineering practices especially in ecosystems that depend on snowmelt and groundwater to provide moisture through the growing season, such as mountain meadow ecosystems along the American Cordillera, where an increasing percentage of precipitation is falling as rain rather than snow, snow that does accumulate is melting earlier, and summers are longer and drier. The goal of this collaborative project is to investigate the range of processes and spatial and temporal scales affecting a meadow ecosystem. Using the well-instrumented Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, CA, as a case study, the project team will 1) downscale future climate model scenarios to the study area, 2) use the expected statistical shifts in temperature and precipitation to adjust the historic meteorological record to one that is expected in the future, 3) run a distributed snowmelt and runoff model over the basin to determine how different areas respond to climatic shifts and which areas are most and least sensitive, 4) combine simulated runoff with a hydraulic routing model through the meadow to estimate how stream water levels will be affected by climate change with and without various restoration efforts, 5) model how groundwater levels throughout the meadow will respond to shifts in stream level, and 6) model how vegetation communities are most likely to shift in response to projected water table changes. There is a need to develop the scientific basis for sustainable restoration engineering with explicit consideration of climate change. The new modeling techniques and linkages will serve as a framework for a transferable methodology that can be used to investigate the interrelated effects of climate, hydrology, and vegetation dynamics in other regions and ecosystems. Educational benefits of this project include support for graduate and undergraduate students as well as programs for interpretative rangers and visitors to Yosemite National Park, which attracts about 4 million visitors each year. Results will also be posted online for the general public and resource managers.