The Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) Active
Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is a long-term collaboration between FORT, WERC, NOROCK, USFS, NPS, LANL, and universities worldwide to address changes in montane forests and watersheds due to climate change. Current emphases include altered forest disturbance regimes (fire, die-off, insect outbreaks) and hydrology; interactions between plants, water, snow, nutrient cycles, and climate; and cascading ecosystem effects of nitrogen deposition. Currently there are two FORT based WMI projects: Western Mountain Initiative: Central Rocky Mountains, Western Mountain Initiative: Southern Rocky Mountains. We continue to build on decades of field research and data syntheses at national parks and many other lands throughout the west. You can read more about each of these projects on the Science tab on this page.
Western Mountain Initiative Home website
Western Mountain Initiative: Central Rocky Mountains - Principal Investigator - Jill Baron
Mountain ecosystems of the western U.S. provide irreplaceable goods and services, such as water, wood, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their responses to global changes are poorly understood. The overarching objective of the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is to understand and predict the responses, emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience, of Western mountain ecosystems to global change.
The effects of global change and atmospheric deposition are now apparent in nearly all western mountain landscapes, including the Central Rockies of Colorado. As part of the long-term monitoring program in Loch Vale Watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park, we have been tracking and interpreting trends in meteorology, precipitation chemistry, hydrology, limnology, water quality and forest health since 1983. Monitoring is the foundation upon which our research questions are based, and allows us to address mechanisms by which biogeochemical and biological processes are influenced by nitrogen deposition, climate change, and their interactions.
Western Mountain Initiative: Southern Rocky Mountains - Principal Investigators - Craig Allen and Ellis Margolis
Mountain ecosystems of the western U.S. provide irreplaceable goods and services such as water, wood, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their potential responses to projected climatic patterns are poorly understood. The overarching objective of the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is to understand and predict the responses—emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience—of western mountain ecosystems to climatic variability and change. The WMI - Southern Rocky Mountains project, with diverse research partners, works on forests in the Southwest to: 1) elucidate centennial- to millennial-length shifts in past vegetation and fire regimes; 2) study responses of fire to short-term (annual to decadal) climatic variation; 3) determine drivers of tree mortality, including drought-stress thresholds for dieback; 4) assess patterns of post-disturbance ecosystem recovery; and 5) understand the joint effects of climatic variability, fire, and land use on watershed runoff and erosion processes. For more details on current projects in the Southern Rockies supported by WMI, click here: Effects of disturbance and drought on the forests and hydrology of the Southern Rocky Mountains.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Below are publications associated with this project.
Loch Vale watershed long-term ecological research and monitoring program quality assurance report, 2003-09
Effects of nitrogen deposition and empirical nitrogen critical loads for ecoregions of the United States
Salvage logging versus the use of burnt wood as a nurse object to promote post-fire tree seedling establishment
A Natural Resource Condition Assessment for Rocky Mountain National Park
A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests
Forest responses to increasing aridity and warmth in the southwestern United States
Growth, carbon-isotope discrimination, and drought-associated mortality across a Pinus ponderosa elevational transect
DayCent-Chem simulations of ecological and biogeochemical processes of eight mountain ecosystems in the United States
Shifts in lake N: P stoichiometry and nutrient limitation driven by atmospheric nitrogen deposition
Nutrient availability and phytoplankton nutrient limitation across a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen deposition
Ecological effects of nitrogen deposition in the western United States
Rocky Mountain futures: An ecological perspective
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is a long-term collaboration between FORT, WERC, NOROCK, USFS, NPS, LANL, and universities worldwide to address changes in montane forests and watersheds due to climate change. Current emphases include altered forest disturbance regimes (fire, die-off, insect outbreaks) and hydrology; interactions between plants, water, snow, nutrient cycles, and climate; and cascading ecosystem effects of nitrogen deposition. Currently there are two FORT based WMI projects: Western Mountain Initiative: Central Rocky Mountains, Western Mountain Initiative: Southern Rocky Mountains. We continue to build on decades of field research and data syntheses at national parks and many other lands throughout the west. You can read more about each of these projects on the Science tab on this page.
Western Mountain Initiative Home website
Western Mountain Initiative: Central Rocky Mountains - Principal Investigator - Jill Baron
Mountain ecosystems of the western U.S. provide irreplaceable goods and services, such as water, wood, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their responses to global changes are poorly understood. The overarching objective of the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is to understand and predict the responses, emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience, of Western mountain ecosystems to global change.
The effects of global change and atmospheric deposition are now apparent in nearly all western mountain landscapes, including the Central Rockies of Colorado. As part of the long-term monitoring program in Loch Vale Watershed, Rocky Mountain National Park, we have been tracking and interpreting trends in meteorology, precipitation chemistry, hydrology, limnology, water quality and forest health since 1983. Monitoring is the foundation upon which our research questions are based, and allows us to address mechanisms by which biogeochemical and biological processes are influenced by nitrogen deposition, climate change, and their interactions.
Western Mountain Initiative: Southern Rocky Mountains - Principal Investigators - Craig Allen and Ellis Margolis
Mountain ecosystems of the western U.S. provide irreplaceable goods and services such as water, wood, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their potential responses to projected climatic patterns are poorly understood. The overarching objective of the Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) is to understand and predict the responses—emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience—of western mountain ecosystems to climatic variability and change. The WMI - Southern Rocky Mountains project, with diverse research partners, works on forests in the Southwest to: 1) elucidate centennial- to millennial-length shifts in past vegetation and fire regimes; 2) study responses of fire to short-term (annual to decadal) climatic variation; 3) determine drivers of tree mortality, including drought-stress thresholds for dieback; 4) assess patterns of post-disturbance ecosystem recovery; and 5) understand the joint effects of climatic variability, fire, and land use on watershed runoff and erosion processes. For more details on current projects in the Southern Rockies supported by WMI, click here: Effects of disturbance and drought on the forests and hydrology of the Southern Rocky Mountains.
- Science
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Filter Total Items: 24Loch Vale watershed long-term ecological research and monitoring program quality assurance report, 2003-09
The Loch Vale watershed project is a long-term research and monitoring program located in Rocky Mountain National Park that addresses watershed-scale ecosystem processes, particularly as they respond to atmospheric deposition and climate variability. Measurements of precipitation depth, precipitation chemistry, discharge, and surface-water quality are made within the watershed and elsewhere in RocAuthorsEric E. Richer, Jill S. BaronEffects of nitrogen deposition and empirical nitrogen critical loads for ecoregions of the United States
Human activity in the last century has led to a significant increase in nitrogen (N) emissions and atmospheric deposition. This N deposition has reached a level that has caused or is likely to cause alterations to the structure and function of many ecosystems across the United States. One approach for quantifying the deposition of pollution that would be harmful to ecosystems is the determinationAuthorsL.H. Pardo, M.E. Fenn, C.L. Goodale, L.H. Geiser, C. T. Driscoll, E.B. Allen, Jill Baron, R. Bobbink, W.D. Bowman, C.M. Clark, B. Emmett, F.S. Gilliam, T.L. Greaver, S.J. Hall, E.A. Lilleskov, L. Liu, J.A. Lynch, K.J. Nadelhoffer, S.S. Perakis, M. J. Robin-Abbott, J.L. Stoddard, K.C. Weathers, R.L. DennisSalvage logging versus the use of burnt wood as a nurse object to promote post-fire tree seedling establishment
Intense debate surrounds the effects of post-fire salvage logging (SL) versus nonintervention policies on forest regeneration, but scant support is available from experimental studies. We analyze the effect of three post-fire management treatments on the recruitment of a serotinous pine (Pinus pinaster) at a Mediterranean mountain. Treatments were applied 7 months after the fire and differ in theAuthorsJ. Castro, Craig D. Allen, M. Molina-Morales, Sara Maranon-Jimenez, A. Sanchez-Miranda, R. ZamoraA Natural Resource Condition Assessment for Rocky Mountain National Park
We conducted a natural resource assessment of Rocky Mountain National Park (ROMO) to provide a synthesis of existing scientific data and knowledge to address the current conditions for a subset of important park natural resources. The intent is for this report to help provide park resource managers with data and information, particularly in the form of spatially-explicit maps and GIS databases, abAuthorsD.M. Theobald, Jill Baron, P. Newman, B. Noon, J. B. Norman, I. Leinwand, S.E. Linn, R. Sherer, K.E. Williams, M. HartmanA global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests
Greenhouse gas emissions have significantly altered global climate, and will continue to do so in the future. Increases in the frequency, duration, and/or severity of drought and heat stress associated with climate change could fundamentally alter the composition, structure, and biogeography of forests in many regions. Of particular concern are potential increases in tree mortality associated withAuthorsCraig D. Allen, A.K. Macalady, H. Chenchouni, D. Bachelet, N. McDowell, Michel Vennetier, T. Kitzberger, A. Rigling, D.D. Breshears, E. H. (T.) Hogg, P. Gonzalez, R. Fensham, Z. Zhang, J. Castro, N. Demidova, J.-H. Lim, G. Allard, S. W. Running, A. Semerci, N. CobbForest responses to increasing aridity and warmth in the southwestern United States
In recent decades, intense droughts, insect outbreaks, and wildfires have led to decreasing tree growth and increasing mortality in many temperate forests. We compared annual tree-ring width data from 1,097 populations in the coterminous United States to climate data and evaluated site-specific tree responses to climate variations throughout the 20th century. For each population, we developed a clAuthorsA.P. Williams, Craig D. Allen, C. I. Millar, T.W. Swetnam, J. Michaelsen, C.J. Still, Steven W. LeavittGrowth, carbon-isotope discrimination, and drought-associated mortality across a Pinus ponderosa elevational transect
Drought- and insect-associated tree mortality at low-elevation ecotones is a widespread phenomenon but the underlying mechanisms are uncertain. Enhanced growth sensitivity to climate is widely observed among trees that die, indicating that a predisposing physiological mechanism(s) underlies tree mortality. We tested three, linked hypotheses regarding mortality using a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderoAuthorsN.G. McDowell, Craig D. Allen, L. MarshallDayCent-Chem simulations of ecological and biogeochemical processes of eight mountain ecosystems in the United States
Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) cause complex responses in ecosystems, from fertilization to forest ecosystem decline, freshwater eutrophication to acidification, loss of soil base cations, and alterations of disturbance regimes. DayCent-Chem, an ecosystem simulation model that combines ecosystem nutrient cycling and plant dynamics with aqueous geochemical equilibrium calculaAuthorsMelannie D. Hartman, Jill S. Baron, David W. Clow, Irena F. Creed, Charles T. Driscoll, Holly A. Ewing, Bruce D. Haines, Jennifer Knoepp, Kate Lajtha, Dennis S. Ojima, William J. Parton, Jim Renfro, R. Bruce Robinson, Helga Van Miegroet, Kathleen C. Weathers, Mark W. WilliamsShifts in lake N: P stoichiometry and nutrient limitation driven by atmospheric nitrogen deposition
Human activities have more than doubled the amount of nitrogen (N) circulating in the biosphere. One major pathway of this anthropogenic N input into ecosystems has been increased regional deposition from the atmosphere. Here we show that atmospheric N deposition increased the stoichiometric ratio of N and phosphorus (P) in lakes in Norway, Sweden, and Colorado, United States, and, as a result, paAuthorsJ.J. Elser, T. Andersen, Jill Baron, A.-K. Bergstrom, M. Jansson, M. Kyle, K. R. Nydick, L. Steger, D.O. HessenNutrient availability and phytoplankton nutrient limitation across a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen deposition
Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition to lakes and watersheds has been increasing steadily due to various anthropogenic activities. Because such anthropogenic N is widely distributed, even lakes relatively removed from direct human disturbance are potentially impacted. However, the effects of increased atmospheric N deposition on lakes are not well documented, We examined phytoplankton biomass, theAuthorsJ.J. Elser, M. Kyle, L. Steuer, K. R. Nydick, Jill BaronEcological effects of nitrogen deposition in the western United States
In the western United States vast acreages of land are exposed to low levels of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, with interspersed hotspots of elevated N deposition downwind of large, expanding metropolitan centers or large agricultural operations. Biological response studies in western North America demonstrate that some aquatic and terrestrial plant and microbial communities are significantlAuthorsM.E. Fenn, Jill Baron, E.B. Allen, H.M. Rueth, K. R. Nydick, L. Geiser, W.D. Bowman, J.O. Sickman, T. Meixner, D.W. Johnson, P. NeitlichRocky Mountain futures: An ecological perspective
The Rocky Mountain West is largely arid and steep, with ecological scars from past human use visible for hundreds of years. Just how damaging were the past 150 years of activity? How do current rates of disturbance compare with past mining, grazing, and water diversion activities? In the face of constant change, what constitutes a "natural" ecosystem? And can a high quality of life be achieved for - News
- Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.