Western Mountain Initiative (WMI)
The impetus for integration among Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) projects stems from the need to understand how the unique features of mountain systems will determine regional ecosystem responses to climatic change, as well as to identify how large mountain systems influence each other.
Projects in the Western Mountain Initiative:
2004-2008
1999-2003
Common Goals, Objectives and Scientific Issues:
Shared research themes:
Table 1. Scientific themes covered by WMI programs (shaded areas indicate scientific themes included in each research program). (From the WMI Web site.)
Shared Objectives:
- Identify common objectives and scientific themes.
- Collaborate to develop general principles for understanding and managing mountain ecosystems based on commonalties among program findings.
- Share information and projects in the WMI network by developing an information clearinghouse for Western mountain ecosystems, integrating databases for large-scale assessments, and validating and applying ecosystem models across mountain ecoregions.
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Featured USGS Publication
 The Western Mountain Initiative (WMI) of the US Geological Survey (USGS) studies global change in the mountains of the American West. This MRI Newsletter describes the functioning and the specialties of this Initiative, which we advance as an excellent example of scientific collaboration. MRI talked with two of WMI’s principal investigators: Jill Baron, a USGS scientist and Senior Research
Ecologist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University, and Dave Peterson, Senior Scientist with the USDA Forest Service at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Seattle. For the second part of the article they joined us in a discussion
about the key leverage points in developing adaptation strategies to
deal with global change in mountains. Access the Newsletter >
Related USGS Resources
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In the Spotlight
 Western Mountain Initiative:
Predicting Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change - Irreplaceable resources such as water, timber, biodiversity and recreational opportunities are all being affected by the earth's global changing climate. Ecological disturbances - wildfire, insect outbreaks, and the spread of invasive species - are also accelerating and changing the earth's ecosystems. US Geological Survey (USGS) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) scientists are collaborating with WMI and university partners to study and better understand global trends in mountain ecosystems in the western United States, and to be able to predict the responses, with an emphasis on sensitivities, thresholds, resistance, and resilience to climatic variability and change.
Go to the Western Mountain Initiative website for more information, and access the WMI Overview Fact Sheet.
Photo: Tripod Fire, Washington State. Photograph by Philip Higuera, National Parks Ecological Research.
Related USGS Resource
 Loch Vale Watershed Research Project - This project was established to "share results and information on real and potential threats to natural alpine and subalpine resources with the public, scientific community, and air, water, and land managers." Learn More >
Related USGS Resource
 The Fire and Mountain Ecology (FAME) Laboratory of the University of Washington College of Forest Resources, in collaboration with U.S. Geological Survey and the UW Climate Impacts Group, conducts a variety of research projects and other scientific activities on climatic change, fire, and forest ecology in mountain ecosystems of western North America, reporting on the effects of climatic variability and change on forest resources, as well as broad synthesis efforts on climatic change. Visit the FAME website >
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
Western Mountain Initiative