Data & publications
Data from Niwot Ridge LTER
Niwot Ridge LTER
The Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research program is the Mountain Research Station’s most closely integrated and longest-standing science partner. Founded in 1980 as one of the original six National Science Foundation LTER sites, it is among the world’s most enduring alpine research efforts. Based at CU Boulder but drawing researchers from across the country, the program focuses on the high-elevation terrain just northwest of the station, where key study sites—shown in the graphic below—anchor long-term environmental research.
The program maintains more than 350 datasets spanning decades of research on climate, snow, water, plants, animals, soils, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem processes. Here are three easy ways to access data from the Niwot Ridge LTER:
Not sure where to begin? Explore a curated collection of frequently used long-term datasets on animal ecology, snowmelt, climate, streams and lakes, and plant ecology.
Explore visualizations of long-term Niwot Ridge datasets, including air temperature, precipitation, carbon dioxide, soil moisture, plant cover, pika demography, and other environmental measurements. The dashboard is a great place to quickly view patterns and changes through time.
Search the complete collection of Niwot Ridge LTER datasets. Data are archived through the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) and can be searched by topic, researcher, date, taxon, or location. Dataset pages include metadata and recommended citations.
Data from additonal partners & providers
AmeriFlux
AmeriFlux is a network of PI-managed sites measuring ecosystem CO2, water, and energy fluxes in North, Central and South America. The network includes more than 110 active sites (including Niwot Ridge). It was established to connect research on field sites representing major climate and ecological biomes, including tundra, grasslands, savanna, crops, and conifer, deciduous, and tropical forests.
Several AmeriFlux sites on Niwot Ridge collect long-term measurements of exchanges between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Measurements include carbon dioxide, water vapor, energy fluxes, meteorological conditions, and related ecosystem variables across subalpine forest and alpine environments.
Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory
Critical Zone Observatories were a network of NSF funded sites that studied the Critical Zone, the thin veneer of Earth that extends from the top of the vegetation to the base of weathered bedrock.
The Boulder Creek CZO investigated how erosion and weathering control Critical Zone architecture and evolution, concentrating on slope, climate, ecosystems, and rock properties. Data are available for the Boulder Creek watershed from the Continental Divide to the eastern plains. The BCCZO was active 2007-2020.
Dynamic Water Critical Zone (DWCZ) cluster
Dynamic Water was one of nine thematic clusters in NSF’s Critical Zone Collaborative Network (CZNet), beginning in 2020. Its goal was to understand how water stored in snow, soils, weathered rock, groundwater, and vegetation controls mountain ecosystems and water supply. The project collected data in five western U.S. watersheds in Colorado and California.
Dynamic Water worked closely with the Niwot Ridge LTER, although its main study area in the Boulder Creek watershed was Gordon Gulch, considerably downstream and lower in elevation from MRS/Niwot Ridge. The DWCZ was active 2020-2026.
iNaturalist
iNaturalist is a free online social network and crowdsourced citizen science platform. Users take photos or recordings of plants, animals, and fungi, use built-in AI to get identification suggestions, and have a global community of biologists and naturalists help verify the species to generate real-world conservation data.
Explore observations of organisms recorded around the Mountain Research Station. These community observations complement the Station's long-term species lists and provide a growing record of biodiversity in the area.
See also: MRS flora, fauna, & funga
National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP)
The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) monitors precipitation chemistry. The program is a cooperative effort between many different groups, including federal, state, tribal and local governmental agencies, educational institutions, private companies, and non-governmental agencies.
NADP monitoring sites around the station provide long-term records of nitrate, ammonium, sulfate, major ions, precipitation, and total nitrogen deposition.
National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
The National Science Foundation's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale ecological observation facility, fully funded by NSF. NEON collects and provides open data from 81 field sites (including Niwot Ridge) across the United States that characterize and quantify how our nation's ecosystems are changing. Data collection methods are standardized across sites and include automated instrument measurements, observational field sampling and airborne remote sensing surveys.
Niwot Ridge is one of NEON's terrestrial field sites in the Southern Rockies and Colorado Plateau Domain.
NOAA Carbon Cycle Surface Flasks
The NOAA/ESRL/GMD CCGG cooperative air sampling network effort began in 1967 at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. Today, the network is an international effort which includes regular discrete samples from the NOAA ESRL/GMD baseline observatories, cooperative fixed sites, and commercial ships. Air samples are collected approximately weekly from a globally distributed network of sites. Samples are analyzed for CO2, CH4, CO, H2, N2O, and SF6; and by INSTAAR for the stable isotopes of CO2 and CH4 and for many volatile organic compounds (voc) such as ethane (C2H6), ethylene (C2H4) and propane (C3H8). Measurement data are used to identify long-term trends, seasonal variability, and spatial distribution of carbon cycle gases.
OpenTopography LiDAR
OpenTopography is a National Science Foundation-funded facility that provides free, web-based access to high-resolution Earth science data, primarily LiDAR, radar, and photogrammetry. It allows scientists, students, and engineers to discover, process, and visualize 3D topography and digital elevation models (DEMs) without needing specialized local software.
High-resolution LiDAR data are available for Niwot Ridge through OpenTopography. These data can be used to explore elevation, terrain, geomorphology, vegetation structure, and landscape change.
Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL)
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) installs, operates, and maintains an extensive, automated system to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States called SNOTEL (for SNOwpack TELemetry). There are over 730 SNOTEL sites (including Niwot Ridge). The sites are generally located in remote high-mountain watersheds. Basic SNOTEL sites have a pressure sensing snow pillow, storage precipitation gage, and air temperature sensor.
The operates several stations at or near the Mountain Research Station. Available measurements include snow water equivalent, precipitation, temperature, and related snowpack data.
U.S. Climate Reference Network
The U.S. Climate Reference Network is a network of climate stations with sites across the continental US, Alaska, and Hawaii, including site CO_Boulder_14_W at Niwot Ridge. The objective of the U.S. CRN program is to provide a continuous seris of cilmate observations for monitoring trends in climate and to support climate-impact research. Stations are managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information.
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