A combination of land use change, climate change, and alterations of regional and global nitrogen cycles have greatly increased the transmission of dust and reactive nitrogen to the atmosphere. In the Prairie, Peak, Plateau (P3) region of the U.S. western Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Colorado Plateau, atmospheric deposition of dust and reactive N to the mountains have increased by three and two orders of magnitude, respectively, over pre-European settlement. Eutrophication and reduced snow-cover duration are among the consequences. Both mountain ecosystems and downstream water supply have been affected, but the extent and variability of ecological and hydrologic responses are poorly understood.
Results/Conclusions
Our NEON installation will establish a transect across the mountains from the Great Plains to the Colorado Plateau to address the source-receptor relationships between land use change, climate change, and human activities on movement of dust, nutrients, and water. The combined Fundamental Instrument Unit and Fundamental Sentinel Units of Domains 10 and 13 will be critical to understanding the very important changes occurring from soil disturbance to dust deposition, from agricultural and urban nitrogen emissions to eutrophication and acidification, and the effects of dust and climate change on snowpacks and western water supply. The sites include four locations in the Platte River Basin and two in the Colorado River Basin, including an agricultural site (Akron NE), the short-grass steppe Central Plains Experimental Range CO, montane forest around Rocky Mountain National Park, alpine tundra at Niwot Ridge, subalpine forest at Fraser Experimental Forest, and Colorado Plateau site in Canyonlands National Park.
