The Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies serves the mountain science community and regional resource managers by hosting & conducting interdisciplinary research and conducting integrative 24/7/365 monitoring that captures weather, snowpack, radiation, soils, plant community and hydrologic signals of regional climate trends.
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Steltzer & USFS Ouray Ranger District Staff Wrap Up Advanced Snowmelt ExperimentDr. Heidi Steltzer explains her plant phenology monitoring equipment to Warren Young and Kelley Liston from the US Forest Service Ouray Ranger District, our “landlord” at Senator Beck Basin. The Senator Beck Study Plot is visible in the background. Heidi concluded her project that day, August 8th, 2008, by dismantling and removing these “mantis” arrays from the Basin. Results of her study regarding the effects of early snowmelt on plant life cycles, conducted in collaboration with the CSAS, were subsequently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in spring 2009.