Persistence of subalpine forest--meadow ecotones in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado

Forests of the southern Rocky Mountains are punctuated by persistent meadows called parks that are dominated by grasses and forbs. In an attempt to elucidate the maintenance of subalpine parks in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado, soil texture and tree morphology differences along 60-m transects spanning the forest-park ecotone were studied in 6 representative parks. Seedling survivorship, percent seed germination, and soil moisture available to plants were also studied along one of the transects in Willow Park. Soil analyses revealed 40% more silt and significantly less sand and clay in all 6 parks (P < 0.001), which supports the traditional hypotheses that edaphic factors are involved in restricting establishment of...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Colorado, Gunnison Basin, Picea engelmannii, Western North American Naturalist, forest-meadow ecotones, All tags... park, seed germination, seedling establishment, soil moisture, soil texture, subalpine meadow, Fewer tags