麻豆视频

As the Mountain Research Station celebrates turning 100, a look back on its history鈥攁nd toward its future

The sky was a perfect crystal blue as 50 undergraduate students from the 麻豆视频 spent their Saturday atop a mountain clustered around grasshoppers.

Plastic cages scarcely taller than the swaying golden grasses lay scattered about鈥攕ome excluding the insects, others preventing their escape鈥攁ll to see how the creatures responded to the vegetation within.

Rather than assist with the research, which was being conducted by a postdoctoral student from the University of Oregon, these general biology students hiked up a narrow, rugged path amid dense pine and yellowing aspens to this break in the trees, called Elk Meadow, to learn about research鈥攂oth its legacy and its future almost 10,000 feet above sea level.

Just north of Nederland, about 26 miles from Boulder, is CU Boulder鈥檚 鈥渃lassroom in the sky鈥濃�攖he Mountain Research Station. It is the university鈥檚 highest research facility and is home to some of the world鈥檚 longest-running alpine research, from how trees respond to increasing wildfires, to the charismatic little pikas and chickadees that call these slopes home, to the changing composition of the soil itself.

Graduate students and some undergraduates in the natural sciences find their way here. And yet general biology students have rarely had the opportunity to visit and learn about the facility鈥攗ntil now.

鈥淵ou usually see graduate students or faculty or staff up there, but undergrads are rarer,鈥� explains Warren Sconiers, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO) at CU Boulder and the trip鈥檚 organizer.

鈥淲e (EBIO professors) want them to know what opportunities there are in research, and as soon as they realize it, and as soon as they want to (participate), get them out here as a part of the research at Boulder.鈥�

The Mountain Research Station鈥檚 legacy

The Mountain Research Station has long been a pilar of support for alpine research and education. And that legacy is clear in the make-up of the place itself鈥攆rom classrooms and offices to a dining hall and living spaces to bird-nest boxes used to study hybridization hanging on pine trees.

The Mountain Research Station, originally known as Science Lodge and Science Camp, was built in 1920 on what once was federal land. It is one of the oldest alpine field research facilities in the world, and one of the best, argues Bill Bowman, the station鈥檚 former director and a professor emeritus in EBIO. Bowman says that is in large part because of the staff that make this this place run and the expert leadership of John Marr, who became the station鈥檚 director in 1950.

Marr founded many of the programs the station is now known for, like the Mountain Climate Program, and provided the scientific groundwork for the current Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and researches how mountain ecosystems are transforming in response to climate change. It is the only LTER spot focusing on alpine environments in North America and is one of the original LTERs, continuously funded since 1980.

Additionally, through the Mountain Climate Program鈥攃reated to evaluate the relationship between climate and the major ecosystem types of the Front Range鈥攖he station is home to the longest continuous record of greenhouse gas measurements in the continental United States, found above timberline at around 11,500 feet, and the second-longest in the world, behind only the station on Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really been one of the main places on the planet where we鈥檝e learned about long-term changes in climate and mountain ecosystems,鈥� says Scott Taylor, the station鈥檚 director and an associate professor in EBIO. 鈥淭he long-term data that鈥檚 been collected here is really priceless, and I think being at a place that鈥檚 contributed so much to our understanding of long-term change in climate and ecosystems is really special.鈥�

In addition to the LTER program and Mountain Climate Program, the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Program and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) also conduct research near the station.

鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 be able to do half of what we鈥檝e done at the Mountain Research Station if it weren鈥檛 for (Marr鈥檚) efforts,鈥� Bowman says.

Taylor agrees, adding that the Mountain Research Station is 鈥渞eally unique. . . . Lots of places have research stations, but not a lot have this kind of history.鈥�

That history, though, extends past just data to the people who have found their way here through the decades.

Generations of care

Bowman became involved with the station in the 1970s as an undergraduate in environmental, population and organismic biology (now EBIO and integrative physiology). At the time, Bowman worked with a graduate student in the lab of Professor Emeritus Jeff Mitton, who was studying forest genetics and needed help getting pine needle samples to run genetic analyses on them. Bowman, who loved to hike and snowshoe, volunteered.

Fast-forwarding through multiple graduate degrees, Bowman found himself back in Boulder, but this time as a professor. He was invited to participate in the LTER program, which at that time was more concerned with physical-environment conditions than with biology. Through his participation, Bowman began researching plant ecology and what factors determined which plants occurred where, how communities came together to alter the diversity, and how that influences ecosystem functioning.

It was through Bowman鈥檚 lab that Katharine Suding, now the principal investigator for the LTER program and a Distinguished Professor in EBIO, became involved in the program, then as a postdoctoral researcher.

In 1990, a few years after Bowman began his alpine research, he became the station鈥檚 director and stayed there for 30 years, until his retirement in 2021.听

During his tenure, many repairs were completed on the station, including upgrading infrastructure and building the Moores-Collins Family Lodge and Kiowa classroom, which is across the parking lot from the Marr Lab, where the main offices are housed. He also helped start or expand several large research programs, which provided data for something that Bowman saw firsthand for decades: the effects of climate change on the station.

鈥淚鈥檝e clearly seen climate change come and establish itself as being something that we recognize and we can see symptoms of,鈥� Bowman says. 鈥淐limate change is a factor that鈥檚 going to become more and more important in how the station operates.鈥�

Additionally, under Bowman鈥檚 leadership, the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, funded by the National Science Foundation, was established at the station. For more than 20 years, that program has brought undergraduates, including Sconiers, from across the United States and the globe to Colorado during the summers.

鈥淚t鈥檚 gratifying for the faculty who set those (REU) programs up to be able to see the investment come to fruition and see it passed on,鈥� Bowman says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 one of the most satisfying things that I鈥檝e gotten while being director of the Mountain Research Station.鈥�

Inspiring those to come

Sconiers was a student at the University of California, Irvine when he learned about the station. At the time, he was interested in research and graduate school but knew he needed to join a lab to do that. He began contacting faculty around campus, and one of them, Suding, then at UC Irvine, said yes鈥攁nd recommended he pursue an REU.

He applied and was accepted by the program at the Mountain Research Station. While there, he helped collect data detailing how the alpine landscape had been altered in response to climate change.

鈥淭he REU was critical for my career,鈥� Sconiers says. 鈥淚t was my first opportunity to devise a project from scratch, so come up with my own ideas and have it fit into a research interest, and then I got to collect all of the data, so I got to carry it through. In class, you鈥檙e just learning how this works or doing small versions of things, but this was the first chance I had to do everything.鈥�

After graduating, Sconiers was a lab tech for Suding for a year before going on to graduate school for entomology. He eventually became a professor at the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas and stayed there for a few years.

It was about that time that he ran into Suding, who told him about an opening at CU Boulder.

That brought him back to the university, this time as a teaching professor and a researcher with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research鈥攚hich runs the Mountain Research Station鈥攚here he studies how plant species composition affects insect diversity at high elevations.

By bringing his general biology students to the station, he hopes to introduce the next generation of scholars to its possibilities.

鈥淭he idea of the trip was so the students can talk with the faculty who do research there and potentially just be up there for research and other things, so really just to take this resource that鈥檚 unique to CU Boulder and introduce it to students,鈥� Sconiers says. 鈥淟et them know that you can have an interest, and that鈥檚 enough to get involved.鈥�

Taylor, who hopes to use his tenure as director to make the station more visible and inclusive for everyone, is thrilled.

鈥淭here鈥檚 the scientific legacy of the station, but then also there鈥檚 one of inspiring generations to care about alpine ecosystems and mountain ecosystems,鈥� Taylor says.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 partially why I love field stations. They have such a big impact鈥攁 disproportional impact.鈥�

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