Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T09:37:50.644Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Snowmobile Impact on Three Alpine Tundra Plant Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Andrew M. Greller ,
Madeline Goldstein  and
Leslie Marcus
Andrew M. Greller
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Queens College, Flushing, New York 11367, and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302, U.S.A.
Madeline Goldstein
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302, U.S.A.
Leslie Marcus
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Queens College, Flushing, New York 11367, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper describes the effects of 1,020 passages of snowmobiles, made over two winters, on three regularly winter-snow-free alpine tundra plant communities. A cushion-plant community on a 7-degrees slope showed a 31% reduction in total living plant coverage due to snowmobile impact. Destruction was greatest to soil lichens, rock lichens, and the cushion-plants Arenaria obtusiloba, Arenaria fendleri, Paronychia sessiliflora var. pulvinata, Silene acaulis, Eritrichium aretioides, and Phlox pulvinata. Graminoids generally survived to increase in importance. On a flat site, a cushion-plant community with Kobresia myosuroides as its most important species, showed the greatest loss of living-plant coverage, namely 46%. This was due primarily to the destruction of Kobresia, although Selaginella densa, Arenaria obtusiloba, Hymenoxys acaulis, and Eritrichium aretioides, also showed heavy losses. In a Kobresia turf community, destruction was decidedly less severe than in the cushion-plant communities, reduction in total living plant coverage being only 19%. It is suggested that the closed nature of the Kobresia turf, with its stiff tussocks, enables it to absorb impact well. It is recommended that snow-mobile travel be confined to Kobresia or similar turfs, when such travel is necessary under snow-free conditions.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , Summer 1974 , pp. 101 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bray, J. & Curtis, J. (1957). An ordination of the upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin. Ecol. Monog., 27, pp. 325&19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marr, J. W. (1967). Ecosystems of the East Slope of the Front Range in Colorado. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Contribution No. 4, 134 pp.Google Scholar
Marr, J. W. & Willard, B. E. (1970). Persisting vegetation in an alpine recreation area in the southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado. Biological Conservation, 2(2), pp. 97–104, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osburn, W. S. (1958). Ecology of Winter Snow-free Areas of the Alpine Tundra of Niwot Ridge, Boulder County, Colorado. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder: 77 pp.Google Scholar
Polunin, N. (1934). The vegetation of Akpatok Island, Part I. Journ. Ecology, 22, pp. 337–95, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polunin, N. (1945). Plant life in Kongsfjord, West Spitsbergen. Journ. Ecology, 33, pp. 82–108, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polunin, N. (1948). Botany of the Canadian Eastern Arctic. Part III. Vegetation and Ecology. Canada Department of Mines and Resources, National Museum of Canada Bulletin No. 104, King's Printer, Ottawa: vii + 304 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Retzer, J. L. (1956). Alpine soils of the Rocky Mountains. J. Soil Sci., 7, pp. 22–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, D. & Billings, W. D. (1964). Effects of environmental factors on standing crop and productivity of an alpine tundra. Ecol. Monog., 34, pp. 243–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott-Williams, B. E. Willard (1967). Effects of visitors on alpine tundra associations in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, U.S.A.IUCN Publ. New Series, No. 7, pp. 214–6.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. & Rohlf, F. (1969). Biometry. W. H. Freeman & Company, San Francisco: xiii + 776 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. H. (1970). Communities and Ecosystems. Macmillan Company, New York: 158 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Willard, B. E. & Marr, J. W. (1970). Effects of human activities on alpine tundra ecosystems in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Biological Conservation, 2(4), pp. 257–65, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willard, B. E. & Marr, J. W. (1971). Recovery of alpine tundra under protection after damage by human activities in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Biological Conservation, 3(3), pp. 181–90, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar