One-Day Water Quality Survey

by rlc

by webmaster

Researchers will capture a snapshot-in-time of water quality from 250 locations within and around Rocky Mountain National Park in order to glimpse how spatial differences in climate, pollution, and disturbances like mountain pine beetle are affecting Colorados watersheds.

On August 12, 2008 with the help of more than 70 volunteers, researchers at the National Park Service and the University of Colorado at Boulders Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) will collect hundreds of stream samples from both sides of the Continental Divide.

We want to understand how water quality varies spatially in Rocky Mountain National Park and refine our understanding of whats causing these differences, explained James McCutchan, a freshwater biologist with CIRES.

Even basic environmental factors like hill slope, vegetation type, and bedrock mineral composition affect stream chemistry across Rocky Mountain National Park, said McCutchan. In addition to this basic pattern of variability, McCutchan expects to see significant differences between watersheds that have been disturbed by either wildfire or mountain pine beetle and unaffected areas. McCutchans previous work has been able to detect differences in watershed chemistry attributable to the 1978 Ouzel Burn in the park.

This is because the removal of much of a watersheds natural vegetation, as happens by fire, reduces the ability of plants to take up nitrogen and other soil nutrients. As a result, rain and snowmelt tend to flush nitrogen directly into the stream channel.

The researchers hope to learn whether beetle-infested watersheds in the national park have similar chemical signatures.

Nitrogen is a very important nutrient in streams and can alter the growth of photosynthetic organisms. Ultimately, this affects the whole food chain, including top level fish, like Colorados threatened greenback cutthroat trout, said McCutchan.

Nitrogen is a particular nutrient of concern as many studies have shown that nitrogen from various human sources is being deposited on the park. However, the park lacks a full understanding of the implications of this pollutants impacts on biological systems. This study will help describe how nitrogen deposition affects streams and complements other lake-based and land-based work.

While Tuesdays extensive stream sampling effort is intended to provide a one-time snapshot of water quality, researchers hope to eventually develop a long-term monitoring program at several of the stream locations.

This campaign can help us pick the best locations for longer term studies said Park Research Administrator, Judy Visty. Its a great study because it combines questions about current stream chemistry as impacted by bark beetles or nitrogen with questions about how to best monitor streams into the future. So it accomplishes multiple objectives.

Comment on What's New? by NPS. Made on 08/12/08.

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