Asking the pikas politely…
Vegetation's influence on mountain watershed function: Mountain systems provide refuge to species, and people, which has led an abundance of plant species in and unique to mountain regions. They are also essential for the well-being of people in and beyond the mountains via the water stored as snow, especially regions such as the U.S Southwest where rainfall and glacial meltwater inputs are low or less reliable. Our research is a component of the U.S. DOE's community watershed research and aims to understand how the essential role of plants in species-rich mountain region influence the function of a mountain watershed. To that end, we are using models from hillslopes to watersheds to identify what characteristics of vegetation influence water supply and biogeochemical cycling. Through co-design, this information will inform field collection of data to improve the parameterization of the models, which in turn can further refine our approaches for sampling the diversity of life zones and topographies across the mountain watersheds in the Crested Butte area. The aim of all this work is to improve prediction seasonally and annually of water availability in the rivers through which snowmelt and groundwater-derived from snow provide water to communities across the west.
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