Modeling the gopher-meadow eco-geomorphic system on montane hillslopes

On montane hillslopes of Colorado's Front Range, the transport of soil by gophers can dominate the modern geomorphic system in meadows. Qualitative observations reveal that gophers prefer to forage in meadows over forests, that seedling roots are consumed by gophers, and that trees commonly occupy the rocky crests of hills overlooking open meadow hillslopes. This motivates a numerical model of gopher-mediated transport of soil and the long-term evolution of the coupled ecological-geomorphic system through quantitative observations from a manipulative experiment on meadow-centered plots in the Boulder Creek CZO in the Colorado Front Range montane forest. The ecological and geomorphic processes in the coupled system we wish to model must include: seedling establishment and damage, gopher tunneling geometries and resulting mound generation, mound material transport driven by rain and hail and by ungulate trampling, vegetative lock-down of mound material, and resulting changes in the soil depth and rockiness of the landscape. We must therefore have algorithms to capture the feedback mechanisms between gopher activity and the growth and potential death of trees, the casting of seeds and their likelihood of germination, and the spatial distribution of plants. The ecological component interacts with the soils/critical zone layer through feedbacks that include the dependence of gopher activity on root density, depth, and size, undergrowth availability, and the dependence of the rate of change of soil thickness on gradients in gopher-mediated transport. Results of a preliminary cellular automaton model which captures the essence of these geomorphic-ecological feedbacks can readily address the role of gophers in limiting the encroachment of trees into meadow patches. The bioturbation of the meadows, and the downslope transport of soil within them, is much more efficient than that in the forest, which sees little to no gopher activity. These geomorphic transport hotspots will persist on timescales of meadow duration.