Alpine Lake Ecological Integrity
High Alpine Lake
Importance/Issues
Alpine lake systems are an important component of alpine landscapes. The ecology of alpine lakes is closely linked to conditions in the watershed; therefore, the condition of alpine vegetation may be a covariate in analyses of alpine lake monitoring data. In addition, alpine lake systems provide critical habitat for facultative and obligate aquatic taxa, support many terrestrial taxa, and contribute to nutrient and hydrologic cycling. Alpine lakes are also very sensitive to perturbation, both at local and landscape scales. Accordingly, they were selected as ideal aquatic systems for long-term monitoring in the alpine zones of ROMN parks.
Alpine lakes will be assessed using sentinel sites in all three large ROMN parks. Models will be used to understand sentinel lake monitoring results in the context of other, non-sampled lakes in ROMN parks.
Preliminary Monitoring Objectives:
- Monitor status and trend in the timing of seasonal, annual, and/or decadal patterns in plankton/periphyton assemblages, hydrologic dynamics, and physiochemical loadings of key water quality analytes (e.g., NPS–WRD core measures,any 303(d)-listed analyte, critical anions and cations, nutrients, and sediment) at sentinel alpine lake sites.
- Monitor for trends in phenological events (e.g., ice-out, melt-out, green-up, insect emergence, flowering dates, and lake-turnover dynamics at sentinel alpine lake sites).
- Determine status and trends in selected aquatic invasive plants at sentinel alpine lakes.
- Determine the long-term status and trend of stream length and proportion in each park where beaver are present.
Potential Measures
Protocol Development and Status
Contact Information
Phyllis Pineda Bovin
Biologist
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
11500 Highway 150
Mosca, CO 81146-9798
719-378-6363
Billy Schweiger
Natural Resources Program Center
1201 Oakridge Drive, Suite 200
Fort Collins, CO 80525
970-267-2147
billy_schweiger@nps.gov
(ROMN Vital Sign Monitoring Plan, 2007, page 75)