A meteorological network to monitor environmental and ecolgical change in the cariboo mountains, bristish columbia

人类排放的二氧化碳和甲烷等温室气体导致全球气温在20世纪上升了约0.6摄氏度。随着温室气体排放的加剧，这一趋势预计将在下个世纪加速。一些最大的环境变化将发生在高纬度和高山地区，那里的地表气候对冰雪覆盖的变化高度敏感。因此，全球变暖将对北部山区流域的水文循环产生重大影响，如不列颠哥伦比亚省的奎斯奈尔河流域。奎斯奈尔河（Quesnel River）的流域面积为11500平方公里，平均海拔为1400米，包括不列颠哥伦比亚省内陆一些最潮湿和最干燥的地区，并包含冰川和深峡湾湖泊。Cariboo Alpine Mesonet是部署在Cariboo山脉的5个气象站网络，它的扩展将大大提高我们对气候变率和变化对该地区水循环作用的认识。了解降水分配为蒸发和河流径流，评估过去、现在和可能的未来积雪和冰川对流域水文循环的贡献，对BC省和加拿大其他地方的水资源管理和商业活动非常重要。加强对这一流域的气象和水文监测将提供关于气候变率和变化对环境和生态过程的影响的重要信息，包括林木线动态、害虫侵扰（如山地松甲虫爆发）、鲑鱼迁徙和产卵以及濒危山地驯鹿。淡水仍然是加拿大最重要的自然资源；然而，对水日益增长的需求需要对未来的可用性有精确的了解。因此，这个项目将有助于回答加拿大社会在21世纪将面临的一些最相关的问题：我们是否有足够的水来满足我们的需求？水从哪里来？水文循环的变化将对环境和生态产生什么影响？

The anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane has contributed to a rise in global air temperatures of about 0.6 degrees Celsius in the 20th century.  This trend is projected to accelerate in the next century as greenhouse gas emissions intensify.  Some of the greatest environmental changes will be in high-latitude and alpine regions where the surface climate is highly sensitive to modifications in snow and ice covers. Global warming will therefore have significant repercussions on the hydrological cycle of northern mountainous watersheds such as the Quesnel River Basin of BC. The Quesnel River drains an area of 11,500 square kilometres of variable (mountainous to flat) terrain at a mean elevation of 1400 metres, encompasses some of the wettest and driest areas of BC's interior, and contains glaciers and deep fjord lakes.  The expansion of the Cariboo Alpine Mesonet, a network of five weather stations deployed in the Cariboo Mountains, will greatly advance our knowledge of the role of climate variability and change on the region's water cycle. Understanding the partitioning of precipitation into evaporation and river runoff, and evaluating the past, current and possible future contribution of snow and glaciers to the basin's hydrological cycle, are very important for water resources management and commercial activities in BC and elsewhere in Canada. Enhanced meteorological and hydrological monitoring of this watershed will provide crucial information on the impacts of climate variability and change on environmental and ecological processes including treeline dynamics, pest infestations such as the mountain pine beetle outbreak, salmon migration and spawning, and the endangered mountain caribou.  Freshwater remains a natural resource of primary importance in Canada; however the increasing demands for water require precise knowledge of its future availability.  This project will thus help answer some of the most pertinent questions that Canadian society will face in the 21st century: Will we have sufficient water for our needs, where will it come from, and what will be the environmental and ecological consequences of changes to the hydrological cycle?