Rocky

Mountain National Park Wetlands status of knowledge

David J Cooper
Colorado State Univ
 Boreal/subarctic

Nearly continuous
mountains from
Temperate
Arctic to Antarctic,
with highly Maritime

variable climate, Paramo

flora and human Jalca
Puna
use

15,000 km transect
 Wetland
Ecosystem that regularly or periodically has saturated
soils during the growing season of many years
Water source can be streams, groundwater
Hydrologic/geomorphic processes, disturbance regimes,
elevation/climate, and flora determine the wetland type
6% of Earths land area is wetland
4% of RMNP
Wetland Types of Interior Mountains

Riparian Marsh

Salt Flat

Peatland Wet Meadow

 Riparian Hydrology Controls
Wetland Type
Marsh
Water
Level
(cm) Fen Peatland
Salt Flat Wet
Meadow

May June July Aug Sept

Month
 Wetland Soils
Hydric soil
Organic soil
Histic epipedon
Gley, mottled
Bofedales are alpine peatlands
Peatland is a type of wetland
 Moss establishment
Peatland
Formation
Paludification Terrestrialization Paludification
Most common
Peat initialization on
mineral forest soils that
become water-logged or
have groundwater inputs

Paludification Terrestrialization
Terrestrialization
When a pond or lake fills
with sediment, moss and
aquatic peatland plants
Hydrology
Key driver of peatland formation and maintenance
Water table depth controls plant growth and carbon cycling
Considerations : Inputs and outputs seasonal fluctuations water
table required to support desires wetland type
 Simplified Carbon Budget
Atmospheric
Rate of organic matter production NPP
CO2
exceeds decomposition due to
waterlogging
Temperature Water Level
Waterlogging creates anoxic conditions
that limits decomposition Decomposition
Processes are out of whack (CO2,CH4)
Peat accumulation rate ~20 cm/1000 yr

ARE FENS STILL ACCUMULATING PEAT? Peat

Or are they relicts of past climate periods?
Chimner & Cooper 2000. showed net storage of C
Wickland et al. 2001. Loch Vale watershed show net loss of C
Millar et al. 2016. net storage in all but lowest elevation fens
C flux -- NEE = GPP - ER
Dark chamber measures
Ecosystem Respiration (ER)
4600 m elevation
Ground water fed sloping fen
Distichia muscoides
71% Organic Matter
Cushion plant production critical for llama/alpaca

Distichia
muscoides

Clipping wont work, shoots too short,

And 12 month growing season,
cannot clip peak season
Plantas de Cojn
Distichia spp
 Drepanocladus moss fibers

Sedge roots/rhizomes
Vegetation determines peat composition/character.
Audrey Crockett et al. 2015 - showed that peat from
Carex utriculata, Carex aquatilis, Eleocharis quinqueflora,
and Salix spp. have distinct hydraulic properties, with
different sensitivity to water availability
Substrate
Vascular Plant Peatland
Community Plant Cover

Hydrology &
Moss Peat
Community Accumulation
Water/Soil
Chemistry

18
Multiple water sources - Each geochemically distinct
 Wide range of pH in natural waters
Oxidation of pyrite in 35
hydrothermally
30
influenced areas
produce low pH waters 25

Water from

N plots
20
sedimentary carbonate
rocks produce high pH 15
waters
10
Volcanic rocks and
5
moraines, produce
intermediate pH waters 0

+
.0

.5

.0

.5

.0

.5

.0

.5
-4

-4

-5

-5

-6

-6

-7

-7

5
7.
5

0
3.

4.

4.

5.

5.

6.

6.

7.
pH
% Organic Carbon
35

30

25

20
N plots

15

10

+
8

5
2

0
-1

-2

-3

-3

-4
-1

-4

45
0

12

18

25

30

40
35

% organic carbon
 SALT FLATS
Inland areas, water transports salt
Can accumulate in terminal lake or areas
with high water table
In wetlands - evaporative processes
Affects plant water relations
Specific ions can be toxic (Na+, borate) =
effects enzymes
 Salt Flats/Meadows/Marshes
Two main types: perched basins, and
Fresh Capillary Rise Perched
high water table areas that are rarely
flushed of salt
Salts accumulate over long time
periods
A range of salt types occur
Produce both anoxic and saline soils
Very few plants can survive these
environments
Similar species to coastal salt marshes
High invertebrate production,
important for shorebirds, ducks, wading
birds
11 miles
miles 11 km
km

2017
2017 DigitalGlobe
DigitalGlobe
Capillary Rise to Ground Surface
Perched Water Table/Closed Basin
Two Major Processes
Controlling Salt
Accumulation in
Wetlands
 Wet Meadows --
Wetlands that dont
accumulate peat

Similar to fens, but without perennial soil saturation,

and little or no organic matter accumulation
Seasonally saturated, and herbaceous plant dominated
Abundant in the western U.S. and important for
agriculture (hay)
Commonly created by irrigation
 Marshes
Seasonally or periodically
deep standing water (up to
1.5 m deep), slow moving
Periodic drought, vegetation
death, seedbank
Herbaceous plants
Extreme reducing soils
Plants well adapted for
Extremes
Wildlife habitat
 Climate Driven Loss of Glaciers
Most tropical glaciers in world in Peru
and Bolivia
Melting rapidly
Agriculture & urban populations
depend upon water from Andes and
livestock use bofedales
Prevailing hypothesis = glacier melt-
water supplies bofedales - loss of
glaciers means loss of bofedales and
decline of pastoral cultures
PARAMO

PUNA
 Impacts to Fens
Hydrologic modifications
Water diversions, ditches, groundwater pumping,
inundation
Road construction and livestock grazing
Land conversion, filling
Ski resorts, resources extraction, reservoir

Effects of changes to the water table

Subsidence & degradation of peat soils/decomposition
Changes to vegetation and primary productivity
Upland, aquatic or exotic species invasion
Loss of peatland species
Altered carbon balance
Carbon source: carbon released to the atmosphere.
Accelerated by degradation, drought, fires
Degradation: Ditching for Grazing
DISTURBANCE
Year round grazing
Heavy utilization of plants,
Severe erosion
Fen Restoration
Main Restoration Goal: Hydrologic restoration is key to reestablishing suitable
vegetation need the right plant species
Structure
Establish communities of vascular and moss plants that are comparable to natural
peatlands, used as reference areas, and have the potential to transition through a
desired successional trajectory
Function
Establish vegetation that produces and retains biomass to allow peat accumulation
Consider constraints to restoring structure and function
Substrate
Hydrology
Chemistry
Plant species establishment
35
 1987 ACTIVE RESTORATION

Ditch dug by homesteader

Still functioning 100 years later

Dry during the summer
2+ m of peat, >12,000 year old fen
Drying threatened the persistence of fen
Vegetation changes
Schimelpfenig et al. 2013 - 6.7 cm subsidence
Increase in bulk density
Blocking Ditch 1989
Impacts of the
Ditch
Reference sites

Water Level
Comparisons
Disturbed sites
Before - 1987 After - 2015
Increase in Carex cover
Case SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, CA
Study HALSTEAD MEADOW
 12-18

Disturbances
Legacy effects from grazing
Erosion gullies formed
Continued degradation
Drying of meadow leads to
conversion to non-wetland
vegetation
Disturbances Phase1: Upper Halstead

Channel incision
Sediment erosion/loss
Lowered water table
Road impoundment
Altered topography
Road

Phase 2: Lower Halstead

Phase 2
8100 cu yd placed in 2007
Implementation
800 dump trucks of soil

In late summer-early fall when

meadow was driest - 2007
Before (2011)

After (2015)
Quantitative
Analysis of Success
Goals:
Phase 1
1. Restore hydrologic regime =
sheet flow and near surface
water table and
2. Establish native plants
Super drought

Compare pre and post water level Phase 2

data and to reference site
Restore sheet flow Restored native vegetation
 Initial observation was that the site had peat soils, yet it had pocket gopher activity
and plants that were exotic to the meadow

*Pocket
gophers and
voles cannot
survive in
perennially
saturated
soils
 #
H

F ##

C-2

C-1 C-3
##
# #
## #
#

A-2
##
A-3
##
# #
A-1 %## #
# G
##
# ## #
B-1 B-2 B-3
##
E
# D

V #

J
##
Could we tie the drawdown to daily pumping cycles?

2005
 0
drawdown widens
drawdown
not recovering Well 10 in peat

water table relative to ground surface (cm)

to same level
-20

Daily
-40 variation
increases
recovery
-60
rain

-80

-100

Entire peat body dry

-120
5-31

6-7

6-14

6-21

6-28

7-5

7-12

7-19

7-26
2004
San Luis Valley
Ground Water Pumping