Niwot LTER Transformational Research:

• High elevation ecosystems are “water towers” that store seasonal snow until it is released during snow melt runoff, providing large quantities and high quality water that drive the economy and the ecology of the western US.

• Alpine ecosystems serve as “early warning” indicators of global climate change because the flora and fauna of high-elevation ecosystems are on the razor’s edge of their environmental tolerance, and hence are more sensitive to directional change in climate than downstream ecosystems

• High-elevation ecosystems act as early warning indicators of ecosystem damage from air pollution, with increasing levels of nitrogen deposition associated with industry and agriculture “tipping” alpine soils toward a toxic level of acidification, reducing plant growth and polluting surface waters.

• An abundance of previously unknown microbes are active beneath the snow at the highest elevations in the continental US, even in rock glaciers high above the tree line in the Rocky Mountains (a barren environment previously thought to be devoid of life), which substantially broadens our understanding of both the diversity and biogeochemical functioning of life in extreme environments.

• The NWT LTER has been the lead in successfully launching the LTER Schoolyard Children’s Book Series, which engages children and their families in learning about the earth's ecosystems, both locally and internationally, through narratives that reflect the dynamic research being conducted at the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Sites.