Sierra Nevada Strategies

Most of California’s water and much of its energy supply originates with the rain and snow that fall in the Sierra Nevada. Changing climate patterns, fire and human activities are putting increasing pressure on this critical ecosystem. Center scientists use a combination of riverscape ecology, watershed science, hydroinformatics, and spatial modeling to improve decision making and management of California's Sierra Nevada watersheds. The Sierra Nevada Strategies group examines three primary areas of research:

Connectivity

Hydrological connectivity is a critical component of maintaining ecosystem function. Research projects examine longitudinal, lateral, and vertical dimensions, from mountain meadows to alluvial floodplains.

Scalability

A persistent challenge in watershed science is bridging scales, from empirical observations obtained from extensive fieldwork to broad spatial models generated by geographic information systems and hydroclimatic models. Center research projects strive to integrate results across several scales to broaden applicability, reduce uncertainty, and inform management and policy through strong inference.

Regulation

Most of the Sierra's rivers are regulated (i.e., have dams and diversions). Research projects compare and contrast the ecology and management potential of regulated rivers with managed releases and unregulated rivers with natural flow regimes.

Research Programs

Sierra Nevada Strategies
	Project
	Sierra Nevada Meadows Clearinghouse	Mountain meadow wetlands provide disproportionally important ecological services as compared to the area they cover in the Sierra Nevada by providing wetland-associated biodiversity, attenuating floods, and by contributing to downstream water quality and flow. However, degradation and loss of hydrologic function are widespread in Sierran meadows due to past and continuing anthropogenic effects including grazing management, diversions, roads and culverts, as well as non-native species.
	Beavers, Meadows and Climate Change	Mountain meadows inhabited by beavers have an important role in mitigating climate change. As carbon sinks, they store remarkably large amounts of greenhouse gases for the long term. However, degradation from livestock grazing and conversion to dry grasslands has greatly diminished the carbon-storing capacity and biodiversity of meadows in the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada of California. Restoration of these biodiversity hotspots is key for creating climate refugia for sensitive species and increasing carbon sequestration.
	Van Norden Meadow Restoration
	Food webs of 10 lakes before and after a mega-wildfire	The explosion and intensification of climate-driven mega-wildfires over recent years highlights a pressing need to better understand these impacts at all scales. Yet despite increasing wildfire disturbance, there lacks understanding of the extent to which fire may alter trophic structure in lakes, or the degree to which fire-effects are mediated by ecosystem architecture. What little is known derives primarily from boreal environments, and there have been no pre- versus post-fire food web comparisons to date.