Abstract
Interactions between climate and ecosystems with complex topographic gradients generate unique source and sink habitats for water and nutrients as a result of precipitation, energy, and chemical redistribution. We examined these phenomena for a high-elevation site in the Colorado Front Range. Current changes in climate and atmospheric deposition of nitrogen to these systems are causing rapid changes in some portions of this system but not in others. Using a conceptual model that links terrestrial ecosystems to each other and to aquatic ecosystems, we report how atmospheric inputs and endogenous resources can be amplified or attenuated by transport processes. High-elevation lakes and the alpine tundra-forest ecotone are expected to receive the brunt of anthropogenic inputs obtained from (a) the redistribution of exogenous materials from the regional environment and (b) endogenous sources originating in other montane areas.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 111-121 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | BioScience |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2004 |
Funding
We thank our colleagues Todd Ackerman, Patrick Bourgeron, Pam Diggle, Mark Losleben, Robert (Buck) Sanford, Steve Schmidt, Herm Sievering, Katharine Suding, and Carol Wessman for contributing ideas and information. Jill Baron, John Blair, Cliff Dahm, Fred Swanson, and two anonymous reviewers provided useful and extensive comments on a previous draft of this article. Mariah Carbone and Megan Walsh assisted with graphics and manuscript preparation. Research has been supported by the National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research grant DEB 9810218 to the University of Colorado.
| Funder number |
|---|
| DEB 9810218 |
Keywords
- Alpine
- Aquatic-terrestrial interactions
- Climate
- Nutrient deposition
- Transport processes
