Climate Change in Rocky Mountain National Park

Hello.  My name is Clinton Whitten and I’m the George Melendez Wright Climate Change Intern for Rocky Mountain National Park. This internship gives thirteen interns across the country the chance to get involved with climate change research.  Today I am going to tell you about research projects that involve aspects of the park that could be affected by climate change. This includes permafrost, Limber pine trees, Pika, and alpine vegetation.

The first project I am going to tell you about is the permafrost monitoring project. The project lead is Dr. Jason Janke from the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Permafrost is defined as ground that remains frozen for at least two consecutive years. The presence and depth of permafrost depends on temperature, aspect, elevation, moisture, and snow cover. Dr. Janke’s project includes monitoring ground temperatures. This summer three sensors were placed along Trail Ridge Road that monitor the ground temperature every meter down to six meters. These holes were drilled next to the road to minimize the impact to the tundra, and because the road could be damaged by melting permafrost. This is a long-term project that will monitor ground temperature changes into the future.

With changes in climate native species can become more susceptible to both native and invasive parasites. Limber pines are some of the oldest trees in the park. This project is examining the resistance of Limber pines to White pine blister rust. White pine blister rust is a parasite that is not native to Colorado. The hope is to have a seed bank from the trees that are more resistant to the rust.  With the large mountain pine beetle infestation in the park there is a possibility that these trees could be killed by the beetles before enough seeds can be collected. For this reason there is a large effort by the park and volunteers to protect the Limber pine trees from beetle attack. The best chance for survival is to place packets of verbinone, a synthetic pheromone that repels the beetles, on the trees.

One of the poster animals for Rocky is the Pika. These small mammals live above tree line at the highest elevations in the park.  They are very sensitive to changes in temperature. This could mean warmer temperatures due to climate change, or lower winter temperatures if there is less snow cover. They require talus slope and grasses to survive and are active year-round. This means that their habitat is some of the most rugged places in the park. The Pika monitoring project picks locations that are likely to have Pika and has someone go to that location to check for Pika. This study is a long-term monitoring project that will look for changes in Pika population at these locations.


Alpine tundra covers one third of the park. It is also one of the most sensitive environments in the park. The GLORIA project is an initiative that monitors alpine environments around the world. GLORIA stands for Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments. It is being carried out by the Rocky Mountain Monitoring Network, a group of National Park Service biologists. It monitors vegetation in different alpine sites across Rocky, as well as other parks. This is also a long-term study that will hopefully track changes in vegetation.

You have just been exposed to a small portion of the projects going on in Rocky that involve climate change. These are all long-term projects that will continue to develop into the future. Hopefully this has piqued your interest about how climate change is affecting Rocky Mountain National Park.  I’m Clinton Whitten, the George Melendez Wright Climate Change Intern at Rocky Mountain National Park.  Thank you for watching.