CIRMOUNT Update
North American GLORIA Work Group
(Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments)
October 5, 2006
North American GLORIA: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/gloria/
GLORIA International: http://www.gloria.ac.at/
From: Connie Millar (cmillar@fs.fed.us) & Dan Fagre (dan_fagre@usgs.gov), with input from
the GLORIA Work Group participants at the MtnClim 2006 conference, Mt. Hood, OR
The North American GLORIA Work Group reports the following recent accomplishments and
plans for the upcoming year.
1. Multi-Summit Target Regions Installed
Between July 2004 and August 2006, nine GLORIA multi-summit Target Regions have been
installed in North America, representing the launch of the GLORIA program on this continent.
The multi-summit Target Region (TR) is the basic node of alpine plant monitoring in the
international GLORIA program; each TR consists of four (in some cases three) summits in
ascending elevation from treeline to the highest available summit in a local bioclimatic region.
A standardized monitoring protocol, developed by the international office, is used to establish
the TRs and to monitor plants and climate at each summit. Data are archived on the international
GLORIA website.
The nine North American TRs and lead organizers include:
Glacier National Park, MT (Fagre/Holzer)
Sierra Nevada, CA (Dennis/Millar)
White Mountains, CA – Dolomite substrate (Dennis/Smiley/Millar)
White Mountains, CA – Non-dolomite substrates (Dennis/Smiley/Millar)
Lake Tahoe Basin, CA (Dennis)
San Juan Mountains, CO (Nydick/Landry)
Front Range, CO (Bowman)
Whistler Mountain, BC (Swerhun/Jamison)
Mt Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve, BC (Swerhun/Jamison)
2. Multi-Summit Target Regions Planned
Multi-summit TRs are in planning for the following regions, and installations are expected to
begin in summer of 2008:
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North Cascades, WA (Mitchell)
Brooks Range, AK (Jorgenson/Holzer)
Nelson Range, BC (Reasoner)
Wind River Range, WY (Well/Dahms)
In two additional regions, GLORIA TRs are in early planning:
Pintlar/Highland Ranges, MT (Apple)
Rocky Mountain Biological Lab, CO (Inouye)
3. North American GLORIA Master Stations
In addition to the basic multi-summit TR monitoring, the international GLORIA program
promotes a “Master Station” approach, whereby research programs and additional monitoring
efforts related to climate and climate-response are conducted in conjunction with local GLORIA
TRs. Two Master Stations have been launched in North America, associated with the Glacier
National Park, MT TR (Fagre) and with the White Mtns, CA TR (Smiley/Powell).
Glacier National Park Master Station
Several alpine research studies are ongoing. A primary task is to resurvey a network of
monitoring sites that were established previously. More information is available from Dan
Fagre.
White Mountain Master Station
The White Mtn Master Station is supported and administered by the University of California’s
White Mtn Research Station (WMRS). The Master Station was launched with a workshop in
Bishop, CA in May 2006. Approximately 15 projects currently are affiliated with the Master
Station effort, with topics ranging from mammal, butterfly, and other invertebrate monitoring to
pine recruitment and GLORIA add-on plant monitoring. The WMRS sponsored a field week in
July 2006 based at their Crooked Creek facility in the high White Mtns. During this week about
20 researchers gathered to conduct daily GLORIA Master Station related field work as well as
convene evening discussions. Similar Field Weeks are anticipated in summer 2007 and
subsequent years, and other researchers interested in subalpine/alpine climate and climate-related
research and monitoring in the White Mtns are invited to join. The WMRS computer facility will
archive data derived from the master station projects. A conference reporting results from the
Master Station and related research is in planning.
For more information about the White Mtn Master Station projects and Field Week, see:
http://www.wmrs.edu/projects/GLORIA%20project/default.htm or contact John Smiley at:
jsmiley@wmrs.edu.
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4. GLORIA Plans for Upcoming Years
The North American GLORIA Work Group proposes the following goals for the upcoming
year(s):
1) Continue to add new Target Regions, both to support those indicated above in planning and to
encourage additional TRs in strategic North American.locations.
2) Support continuing research and monitoring at the two North American GLORIA Master
Stations.
3) Develop a “North American Monitoring Addendum” to the basic GLORIA Field Manual.
The add-ons would include suggestions for additional and/or modified monitoring protocols to
the multi-summit TR standards and would be based on experience of GLORIA TRs in North
America.
4) Develop “North American Suggestions for Analysis” as an addition to the GLORIA Field
Manual. These would include a basic set of analyses using the baseline as well as repeat
monitoring data for investigating diversity conditions and plant:climate relations within TRs and
among TRs.
5) Collaborate with the international North American Cordillera Transect Project (working with
the CIRMOUNT International Relations Work Group, Greg Greenwood and Craig Allen).
6) Collaborate with the National Phenology Network (working with Julio Betancourt).