General Information
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The Mountain Research Station (MRS) is an interdisciplinary research facility of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, devoted to advancement of study of mountain ecosystems. Our mission is to facilitate research and education to better understand the unique patterns and processes of biotic and physical systems in mountains, and how environmental changes may influence these patterns and processes.
Research at the MRS is performed by a multitude of investigators from numerous organizations, including NSF sponsored programs such as the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research Program, the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Program, the National Ecological Observatory Network, and multiple individual investigators. The MRS is in charge of the Mountain Climate Program, established in 1952, established to provide long-term climate data from the montane, subalpine, and alpine zones of the Colorado Front Range. Four main meteorological stations have been maintained continuously since the inception of the program.
The MRS runs undergraduate field courses, and provides site support for visiting K12, undergraduate, and graduate courses. Additionally we organize research conferences, including the Guild or Rocky Mountain Ecologists and Evolutionary Biologists meeting held in the autumn.
Over the past decade the Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendrocthonus ponderosae) has killed millions of pine trees from New Mexico to the Yukon Territory, as a result of an unprecedented explosion in their numbers. The causes behind the beetle outbreak has been the topic of...
