Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Exploration Is Cool.So, last week I left the house like this: The grand plan was to meet Josh, drive the fat-tire bikes up to the Peak to Peak, ride down on singletrack/dirt roads, then ride the skinny tire bikes back up for the car. You know, a little something-different adventure. We got off to a rocky start, […]
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Nitrogen turns RMNP algae into junk food for fish
The still waters of Lion Lake No. 1 in Rocky Mountain National Park’s Wild Basin area shimmer in the sunlight with | Broomfield Enterprise
Nitrogen from fertizilizer and car exhaust that’s lofted into the air and then lands in the once-pristine lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park is creating junk food for fish.
“It’s like eating marshmallows all day and expecting to grow. You can’t do it,” James Elser, a professor at Arizona State University and the study’s lead author, told the Associated Press.
Nitrogen deposition is not a new problem, but the new study shows that the effects may be worse than scientists thought.
More nitrogen can reduce long-term lake biodiversity because algae become poor food for other microscopic organisms and, ultimately, fish. The algae are high in nitrogen, but low in phosphorous and less nutritious.
Previous studies have documented rising nitrogen levels in Rocky Mountain National Park, 70 miles northwest of Denver. …
The fish in the park include the rare greenback cutthroat trout and other trout species.
The next step is to study how changes in algae populations are affecting the rest of the ecosystem, Elser said.
“This is filling in some of what we didn’t know before,” said Jill Baron, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and adjunct professor at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Baron has studied air pollution levels in Rocky Mountain National Park since 1981. Her research prompted Vaughn Baker, the park’s superintendent, to push for efforts to cut the pollution.
Along with changes to the algae, park biologists blame nitrogen for an increase in sedges, compared to other grasses and flowering plants known as forbs.
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com.
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