Alpine vegetation composition, structure, and soils monitoring for Rocky Mountain National Park: 2009 summary report

Ashton, Isabel; Britten, Mike; Shorrock, Donna; Schweiger, Billy

Alpine ecosystems are important monitoring targets for the Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Network (ROMN) for a number of reasons, including their value to park visitors, wildlife, and water resources in the West and because the alpine is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Here, we present a summary of our efforts in 2008-2009 to monitor vegetation composition, structure, and soils in the alpine of Rocky Mountain National Park (ROMO). We found the following: • In 2008, an alpine monitoring site was established at ROMO following the guidance from the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) whereby the park became part of an international effort to monitor biodiversity and climate change in the alpine. • In 2008 and 2009, a GLORIA sentinel site was established at four peaks, Jackstraw Mountain and 3 unnamed peaks on the ridge to Mount Ida. The peaks range in elevation from 3520 to 3862 m. • There were 106 species of vascular plants identified from the four peaks. We found a similar number of species on each peak, where most had about 60 vascular plant species. • We measured the presence and frequency of lichens in 1 m2 quadrats on all aspects of the four sentinel peaks. In general, we found more species of lichens in a quadrat than vascular plants and lichen species richness was consistent across summits and aspects, with quadrats averaging 27 species or lichens and only 18 vascular plant species. • The four peaks are generally characterized by stable soils, high vegetation cover, low exotic species cover, and minimal human and herbivore disturbance. • For the winter of 2008-2009, mean daily soil temperatures remained below freezing for most of the time between October and May. The east side of the peaks had more consistent snow cover than the other aspects. In 2009, we found the alpine tundra at the four sentinel sites in ROMO to be a system little impacted by human disturbance or exotic species. Climate change and increased atmospheric deposition of nutrients are the greatest threats to alpine systems in ROMO. Continued monitoring of the vegetation and temperature at sentinel sites will allow us to determine whether climate change correlates with changes in biodiversity in the alpine. Warmer temperatures may contribute to the extinction of some plant species while simultaneously increasing the elevation and latitudinal limitations of other species.

Alpine vegetation composition, structure, and soils monitoring for Rocky Mountain National Park: 2009 summary report

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