The Southern Rockies-Colorado Plateau Domain offers research
opportunities focused on land use. The domain itself includes large
sections of the states that comprise the Four Corners: New Mexico,
Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. The NEON candidate core site will be
located in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in the northeastern
corner of the domain at the University of Colorado Mountain Research
Center at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. Niwot Ridge has served as both a
Long-Term Ecological Research site and an Ameriflux (atmospheric)
research site. Research aspects unique to the area include: the
impacts of urban pollution (from the Denver metropolitan corridor) on
the endangered alpine ecosystem, a high-elevation to Great Basin
research zone, and an opportunity to study the movement of dust and
its impacts across the region.
