A tale of two sides of the mountain at Rocky Mountain National Park

What do lakes, mountains, nitrogen deposition and a continental divide have in common? They are all part of research done in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) that showed how human activities influence ecosystem level processes. RMNP and its continental divide serve as a natural location for a large-scale experimental design in which the west and east sides of the range have distinct, unmixed air masses. This unique feature served as the foundation of a classic study led by Dr. Jill Baron that explored how nitrogen deposition and its anthropogenic sources are responsible for changes in environmental chemistry.