Monitoring of high-altitude ecosystems

1. Monitoring of high-altitude ecosystems Don Campbell Alisa Mast Dave Clow Leora Nanus George Ingersoll Carol Kendall Jill Baron Alex Wolf Heather Rueth Brenda Moraska Koren Nydick Mark Williams Paul Brooks Tamara Blett John Turk NPS, USDA-FS, EPA, NSF, Colorado DPHE, Universities, and others

2. Why monitor ‘clean’ systems? • Mountains are primary water supply for western U.S. • Valuable as reference sites for disturbed areas. • Crown jewels of public lands: mandates to protect wilderness and parks “unimpaired”…

3. How do we tell what is “impaired”? Pollutants in atmospheric deposition: Acidity (sulfur and nitrogen) Nitrogen Mercury Organic pollutants Air Quality “Impairment/Impact” Thresholds: Resource/AQRV change thresholds need to be established (by the NPS) for ecosystem protection How much change will we allow in flora, fauna, soil, water, visibility? (what amount of change constitutes “impairment” or “adverse impact”)

6. Regionaltrends in precipitationconcentration 1985-99 NADP / NTN data -D.W. Clow and M. A. Mast, USGS

7. Fertilization Loss of Soil Base Cations Changes in Plant Communities N Saturation Lake Eutrophication Changes in Aquatic Species Loss of Lake ANC (acidification) Pathways and Effects of Excess Nitrogen Deposition N Deposition

8. Research and monitoring for resource management Process modeling Intensivestudies Long-termmonitoring Synoptic surveys Empirical modeling Populationestimates

9. US Forest Service lakes monitoring WY CO Long-term lakes Continental Divide National Park National Forest • Synoptic surveys • Long-term monitoring

10. 30 Nitrate in wilderness lakes 20 10 0 Wilderness area

11. MT MT ID WY ID WY Deposition (kg N/ha) 0 – 0.5 0.5 – 1.0 1.0 – 1.5 UT CO 1.5 – 2.0 UT 2.0 – 2.5 CO 2.5 – 3.0 3.0 – 3.5 NM AZ AZ NM Wet deposition of nitrogen NO3 NH4

12. WY CO Long-term monitoring sites

13. Front Range Front Range, Northcentral Colorado • 3-6 kg N / ha wet deposition. • Low retention of inorganic N in terrestrial ecosystem. • Aquatic ecosystem N assimilation:Nitrate 3-5 meq/L lower in outlet. • Many watersheds sensitive to N deposition.

14. Mount Zirkel, Northwest Colorado • 3-5 kg N / ha wet deposition. • High retention of inorganic N in terrestrial ecosystem. • No leakage of inorganic N from lake. • Organic N: stored or exported? • Most watersheds not highly sensitive to N deposition.

15. Wind River Wind River, Northwest Wyoming • 1-3 kg N / ha wet deposition. • Moderate retention of inorganic N in terrestrial ecosystem. • Aquatic ecosystem N assimilation:Nitrate 3-5 meq/L lower in outlet. • Many watersheds sensitive to N deposition.

16. Weminuche, Southwest Colorado • 1-3 kg N / ha wet deposition. • Moderate retention of inorganic N in terrestrial ecosystem. • Aquatic ecosystem N assimilation:Nitrate 3-5 meq/L lower in outlet. • Sensitive to acidification (acid rock drainage).

17. Nitrogen Emissions sources in the Rockies • Transportation • Electric power generation • Energy development • Agriculture

18. Toxic compounds in atmospheric deposition ?

19. Mercury in ice core from Upper Fremont Glacier • Remote location in Wyoming, 4000m elevation • 70% of Hg-T deposition during last 100 years from anthropogenic sources. • Peak deposition = 20x background. • Better temporal resolution than sediment cores. -Shuster et al., Environmental Science and Technology, 2002

20. Mercury Lake sediments, Mount Zirkel Paleolimnological records of deposition. Pesticides Lake sediments, Rocky Mt. NP Mills Lake total DDT (ug/kg) 0 5 10 15 0 5 Depth (cm) 10 15 20 Van Metre, Krabbenhoft, Striegl, and others, USGS

21. Lower valley of East Inlet, 7/12/00