Colorado’s alpine tundra is most visible in Rocky Mountain National Park above 11,400 feet. It’s a spectacular environment – but cold and severe. Still, life persists.

In arctic and alpine tundra, the duration of snow cover has dramatic impacts on ecosystem structure and functioning (Fisk et al., 1998; Walker, 2000; Welker et al., 2000; Edwards et al., 2007).

This study highlights the importance of landscape position and resultant snow accumulation to the hydrologic balance of snow-free alpine tundra, and suggests that modeling studies must account for ...