Changing soil characteristics of Tuolumne Meadows: Increased vulnerability and implications for meadow restoration

Post Date

March 10th 2011

Application Due Date

March 17th 2011

Funding Opportunity Number

NPS-NOI-YOSE-11-UW32

CFDA Number(s)

15.944

Funding Instrument Type(s)

Cooperative Agreement

Funding Activity Categories

Natural Resources

Number of Awards

1

Eligibility Categories

Other

This is "Notice of Intent" of a single source task agreement award to University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin under the Great Lakes Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. The justification for this single source award is based on both continuation and unique qualifications. The activity to be funded is a continuation of an activity previously funded. The PI will continue to work on questions raised from previous projects in Yosemite. The PI's previous work found that mountain meadows physically, hydrologically, chemically, and biologically link the terrestrial and aquatic environments, playing a critical role in attenuation of flood peaks (i.e. less downstream flooding), purification/filtration of water, habitat preservation and chemical/nutrient cycling. These tight couplings exist because of the exchange of water, nutrients, and energy between the streams flowing through the meadows and the interconnected meadow aquifers. For example, native wet meadow vegetation such as sedges (Carex spp.) and rushes (Juncus spp.) require significant soil moisture throughout the growing season. Because extended dry periods typically occur during the summer in California, water stored in the meadow sediments from the spring snowmelt, as well as water exchanged from the stream to the meadow sediments, is required to support the lush meadow vegetation. Therefore, The PI is uniquely qualified to do this research to answer the questions that Yosemite Resource Managers need to make appropriate decisions on how best to restore Tuolumne Meadows.

Funding

• Estimated Total Funding:

  $203875

• Award Range:

  $None - $203875

Grant Description

Tuolumne Meadows located in Yosemite National park is a degraded sub-alpine meadow and riparian system that is further threatened by a warming climate. While the causes of degradation remain unclear, ample evidence suggests that willow recruitment along riverbanks is low leading to declining willow cover and excessive bank erosion and channel widening. In addition, extremely heavy livestock grazing in the late 19th century degraded plant communities so severely that many communities lack perennial plants such as sedges and rushes that produce and maintain organic rich soils and large areas of bare soil occur. Moreover, conifer encroachment in drier areas, along headcuts, and areas of bare soil threatens to change the open meadow system into a forested landscape. In this degraded state, the meadows may be substantially more vulnerable to the effects of climate warming. This project will explore restoration different scenarios at Tuolumne Meadows that will apply to meadow systems throughout the Sierra Nevada. Research that has been underway in Tuolumne Meadows in recent years has demonstrated that soil thickness, soil moisture retention characteristics, and soil forming processes play a critical role in determining meadow vegetation’s vulnerability to hydrologic change and it’s amenability to restoration. However, before a restoration strategy can be implemented, a process based understanding of the interactions between vegetation condition and soil maintenance and formation must be developed and better characterized in the system so processes that inhibit and encourage meadow recovery can be identified.

Contact Information

• Agency

  Department of the Interior

• Office:

  National Park Service

• Agency Contact:

  Tonya Bradley
  Contract Specialist
  Phone 402-661-1656

• Agency Mailing Address:

  Help Desk

• Agency Email Address:

  tonya_bradley@nps.gov