Rocky Mountain National Park wetland ecological integrity: 2007–2017 data summary report

Schweiger, E.; Sherrill, Kirk; Long, Kristin; Britten, Mike

Wetlands 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 aesthetic values and are highly valued by visitors. The National Park Service (NPS) Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Network (hereafter, network) conducts long-term monitoring at wetlands in Rocky Mountain National Park as part of its natural resources vital signs monitoring program. The purpose of this report is to describe and summarize wetland monitoring data and information collected under the network’s wetland ecological integrity monitoring protocol so that NPS resource managers and superintendents and scientific and technical staff will understand and be able to access the data and information. We summarize and provide descriptive statistics of the data but do no formal analysis, statistical testing, or modeling, and we do not interpret the data. For example, we do not compare the condition of park wetlands to other wetlands in Colorado or to desired conditions, and we do not analyze changes in wetland conditions over time. Our goal is to fully describe the dataset and provide access to the data and information collected. Therefore, this report has not undergone a formal peer review, though the data collection and analysis methods it contains have been independently peer-reviewed by outside scientific experts reviewing the Rocky Mountain Network Wetland Ecological Integrity Monitoring Protocol. Detailed syntheses can be found in a peer reviewed paper focused on models of structural relationships among human disturbance, ungulates, beavers, and wetland response (Schweiger et al. 2016) and in future status and trend reports. This report presents graphical and tabular summaries of data collected from wetlands at Rocky Mountain National Park (hereafter, the park) from 2007 to 2017. Monitoring included a sample of 154 fens, wet meadows and riparian wetlands conducted across the park from 2007 to 2009 and annual monitoring (2010–2017) at four “sentinel” wetlands. At each site, we collected data on vascular and nonvascular plant species composition, woody species (if present), stand structure (primarily cottonwood and willows), and damage and mortality of woody stems. We also collected field and laboratory soil chemistry samples, documented in-situ groundwater electrical conductivity and pH, and measured depth to water at a shallow groundwater well in the center of each plot. Finally, we documented human disturbance as well as beaver and ungulate use of habitat in and around each plot and in the wetland complex. This report documents fully quality assured and quality checked 2007–2017 data in the network’s Wetland Ecological Integrity (WEI) database. Results summarized here serve as important baselines for future modeling and assessment of status and trend in the condition of the park’s wetlands. These assessments will be reported in forthcoming publications.

Rocky Mountain National Park wetland ecological integrity: 2007–2017 data summary report

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