{"id":3702,"date":"2010-05-19T22:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T22:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/ecological-systems-alpine-tundra\/"},"modified":"2021-06-09T14:47:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:47:54","slug":"ecological-systems-alpine-tundra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/2010\/05\/19\/ecological-systems-alpine-tundra\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecological Systems: Alpine Tundra"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alpine<\/div>\n

\nWhen people think of Colorado, they often picture snow-covered alpine peaks. Yet this ecosystem covers only about 3% of Colorado’s landscape. Alpine tundra is found at the highest elevations in our state – usually above 11,000 feet. Here the long winters, abundant snowfall, high winds, and short summers create an environment too harsh for permanent human habitation.<\/p>\n

Characteristic alpine animals include the pika, marmot, rosy finch, and ptarmagin. These species have adapted to cold climates with harsh conditions, and are active in the alpine year-round.  One of the world’s rarest butterflies, the Uncompahgre fritillary, lives amongst the dwarf willows at altitudes above 13,000 feet and is found on just a few of Colorado’s high peaks.  There are also nine rare and Colorado-endemic plants found only in the alpine zone.<\/p>\n

\"Ochotona<\/div>\n
the American pika (Ochotona princeps<\/i>)<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Boloria<\/div>\n
the Uncompahgre fritillary (Boloria improba acrocnema<\/i>)<\/span><\/div>\n

\nMost of the alpine is federally owned (managed primarily by the U.S. Forest Service) and much of it is in wilderness status<\/a>. Old privately-owned mining claims are scattered throughout, but there are very few active mines operating today. In general, alpine tundra in Colorado is in excellent condition and highly protected.<\/p>\n

\"Alpine<\/div>\n
Overall biodiversity, threat, and protection status scores for alpine tundra in Colorado.<\/span><\/div>\n

\nThe primary threat to this system is global climate change, which could have significant impacts on this system in the future. Impacts from recreation are a distant second. The Colorado Natural Heritage Program and The Nature Conservancy consider the alpine tundra ecosystem to be effectively conserved. For more details see our Biodiversity Scorecard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Alpine<\/div>\n
A “windrose” graph depicting alpine tundra status for individual scoring factors.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people think of Colorado, they often picture snow-covered alpine peaks. Yet this ecosystem covers only about 3% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,21,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-biodiversity-scorecard","8":"category-conservation-planning","9":"category-ecology","10":"category-reports-and-publications","11":"entry","12":"override"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}