Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve wetland ecological integrity: 2010–2014 status and trend report
Schweiger EW, Britten M, Jones J. 2017. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve wetland ecological integrity: 2010–2014 status and trend report. Natural Resource Report. NPS/ROMN/NRR—2017/1569. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Wetlands at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GRSA) are important because they are biodiversity hotspots and support iconic wildlife. They also provide valuable “ecosystem services” such as flood attenuation and storage, aquifer discharge and recharge, sediment stabilization and sequestration, carbon storage, water quality enhancement, and nutrient cycling. Wetlands also provide important aes-thetic values and are highly valued by visitors. This report summarizes five years (2010–2014) of wetland monitoring at GRSA. Monitoring included a survey of wet meadow and salt flat wetlands conducted across the sand-sheet (essentially across the national park) in 2010 and annual monitoring (2010–2014) at a small set of wetlands, which we call “sentinel sites,” on the sandsheet and also at higher elevations in the preserve. We used this monitoring data to develop two new multimetric models that will enable the National Park Service (NPS) to predict the “ecological integrity” of GRSA wetlands. Ecological integrity is the capacity to support and maintain a balanced, integrated, and adaptive community of organisms having a species composition, diversity, and functional organization comparable to that of natural habitats of the region. Overall, if we assume that ecologically healthy wetlands in a national park should have minimal human disturbance, the ecological integrity of sandsheet wetlands in GRSA during 2010 warrants moderate to significant concern. Only one (out of more than 90) of our wetland monitoring sites was in a reference (or ecologically healthy) condition as measured by our multimetric indices of ecological integrity. Human disturbances to GRSA wetlands include impacts from ditches, roads, wells installed for livestock, and historical and ongoing human landuse. There are also likely excessive ungulate (especially elk and bison) disturbances and impacts to GRSA wetlands due to overconcentration of these species in wetlands in the national park.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Schweiger, E.; Britten, Michael; Jones, Jennefer
- Date of Issue
- 2017-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GRSA , NRSS , ROMN
- Keywords
- WEIReport