Long-term investigation of Emerald Lake and neighboring lakes and watersheds in the Sierra Nevada (California) are transforming our understanding of how mountain ecosystems are responding to global change. The proposed research will test the hypothesis that altered climate, changing snow regime, and changes in atmospheric composition are driving biogeochemical and ecological changes in high elevation ecosystems. Data to test this hypothesis will come from studies of lake metabolism, continued assessment of the response of lake phytoplankton to changing atmospheric deposition, continued study of the coupling between climate variability and nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemistry, enhanced measurements of atmospheric deposition, and paleolimnological study of lake sediments. This research will build on more than two decades of biological, meteorological, hydrological, and chemical measurements in high elevation sites.
Management of National Parks and Wilderness Areas in the Sierra Nevada will benefit from the results of our research. The analyses and reconstructions will provide valuable information to Federal and State scientists on long-term lake changes and likely future responses of high elevation aquatic ecosystems to climate change. This research will provide training for one graduate student at UC Riverside in the interdisciplinary study of paleoclimatology and one graduate student at UC Santa Barbara. There will be active recruitment for these students at Minority Serving Institutions of higher learning. A strong outreach program developed with Woodlake High School in Tulare County (Central Valley agricultural region) will be expanded using field experiences and data from the proposed paleo-investigations and climate reconstructions.
