BOULDER, Colo.—The University of Colorado Boulder says it has won a six-year, $5.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to continue studying long-term changes in Colorado’s high mountains.
The grant will support studies at the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research site, considered extremely sensitive to climate change. The study site west of Boulder encompasses thousand acres of tundra, glacial lakes and wetlands stretching to the top of the Continental Divide.
CU professor Mark Williams says long-term measurements on Niwot Ridge indicate the alpine climate there has warmed slightly in recent decades.
He says researchers also have charted a doubling in atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the past several decades, primarily from cars, farming, ranching and industrial activity. He says that’s adversely affecting some wildlife on the ridge.
