Nch'kay Subalpine Research
Introduction
We are a group of students and researchers from the University of British Columbia studying the impacts of warming and increased trail use on alpine plant communities around Nch'kay or in Garibaldi Provincial Park. We are funded by the BC Parks Living Lab program, which promotes the use of BC's provincial parks for research on climate change impacts, in order to inform conservation decision making.
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This project has several research aims including:
1. Collecting detailed climate data (air and soil temperatures, soil moisture and snow melt dates) to track extreme weather events in the park.
2. Testing alpine plant species’ and communities’ sensitivity to a warming climate both above- and below-ground.
3. Understanding which plant communities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of human recreation and in which areas of the park these effects are most prevalent.
4. Supporting the Squamish Nation to get better access to BC Parks (regarding permits, plant harvesting rights, etc.)
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Studies we are carrying out related to these objectives are described in the tabs above!