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Taking measurments on Niwot Ridge
Researchers take routine winter measurements at the D-2 meteorological station (3743) on Niwot Ridge, Colo., circa 1953. Shoshone Peak (3952 meters) is in the background at right. Research of this type continues today through the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research (NWT LTER) site. The Niwot Ridge site is the sole alpine tundra LTER site and is located approximately 35 kilometers west of Boulder, Colo.
The Niwot Ridge LTER study area encompasses several thousand acres of tundra, talus slopes, glacial lakes and wetlands straddling the Continental Divide, 35 miles northwest of Boulder. Examples of research topics studied on Niwot Ridge include patterns and controls of nutrient cycling, trace gas dynamics, plant primary productivity and species composition, geomorphology and paleoecology. A major theme of current research is the impact of climate change on the ecosystem of the Colorado tundra, with particular focus on the effects of altered snowpack and rainfall regimes. New facilities (like a tundra lab), new research initiatives (like a 100-year snow fence, a subnivean lab), and centralization of data management activities will help the Niwot facility meet its research objectives.
The LTER Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1,100 scientists and students who investigate ecological processes over long periods of time and at broad scales. The network promotes synthesis and comparative studies across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs.
This work was supported under an NSF cooperative agreement (grant DEB 98-10218).
To learn more, visit the LTER website Here. (Year of image: 1953)
Credit: Dr. John Marr
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