C Z O Project

Background

The scientific community’s understanding of the water use strategy and overall soil moisture balance of forests in high elevation ecosystem is scarce compared to low elevation ecosystem. This is especially true for mountain ecosystem in western United States where snowpack accumulation in mountains remain a primary source of water. Filling up this knowledge gap is essential for accurate assessment of the vulnerability of the mountain ecosystem in western US to climate change, including drought, reduced winter snowpack, fire and presence of invasive species.

Globally, with more than a billion people dependent on water source from snow - covered catchments and nearly 60 million people in western United States relying on water from mountain source, any change in vegetation composition will have dramatic effect not only on the hydrologic pathways across the mountain ecosystems but also influence different ecosystem services including domestic, agricultural and industrial consumption of water.