In search of pika
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NEDERLAND, Colo. — Airy Gonzalez Peralta powered up the final climb to the Tundra Laboratory, a giant tin can tipped on its side that serves a staging area for scientists at the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research station. Peralta studies pikas, the mountain-dwelling relative of rabbits.
“Today we are doing survival surveys,” she explained.
Lingering snow meant that this early-July expedition was one of Peralta’s first forays into the alpine.
By understanding how many pikas survived the winter and how many offspring they had, researchers can evaluate the health of a population. Although scientists currently consider pika stable in Colorado, some worry that climate change could decimate the species.
Pika habitat is remote and rugged, which can make them difficult to study. But pikas also make great scientific subjects.
“They’re basically a natural lab,” said Peralta.
Because pikas tend to occupy a small talus area — angular rocks that accumulate at the base of cliffs from weathering — throughout their entire lifetime, researchers can link long-term weather and ecological data with a particular population of pika and see how the two interact.
Following a moose around with a temperature gauge, she explained, would be much harder.
Becoming a pika researcher
Raised by a single mother in Villahermosa, Mexico, Peralta grew up far from the alpine slopes where she now spends her summers.
“We didn’t have money back then, but my mom always made sure I had food on the table, even if it was just a tortilla with beans and cheese,” she said.
Her family lived on the edge of town. The forest near her house teemed with parrots, howler monkeys and opossums. Peralta remembers watching from her rooftop as ranchers leveled the forests near her house for pasture.
“I wanted to do better for my community,” said Peralta. “That’s what inspired me to study biology.”
As an undergraduate, Peralta studied marine biology. After graduating, she joined an au pair program and arrived in Boulder, Colorado in 2015.
Peralta saw the job as an opportunity to gain cultural experience, improve her English and open opportunities to further her studies.
When she first arrived, however, the loneliness she felt threatened to snuff her dreams.
“It was just 100% culture shock,” she said.
Peralta focused her sights on what she loved and decided to switch from marine to terrestrial biology. She connected with Chris Ray, a research associate at the University of Colorado who studies pikas. She began volunteering at the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research station on her days off.
Peralta’s host family saw her ambitions differently.
They told me, “You’re here to take care of the kids, not to do anything else,” said Peralta.
She quit her job, jumping into an uncertain world.
“You don’t mess with my dreams,” said Peralta.
“Everyone says, ‘oh, the United States is the country of opportunities.’ But it's not that easy. You're coming here without knowing anyone,” she said.
Unlike the students she volunteered with, Peralta had to support herself.
She woke up at 5:00 a.m. to drive for Uber and Lyft. During the day, she volunteered and took community college classes studying geospatial analysis.
Finally, after years of hard work, Peralta earned a prestigious fellowship through the National Science Foundation to fund graduate school. She arrived at the University of Colorado with funding and a desire to double down on pikas.
Staying cool
At 11,000 feet, Peralta teetered across a south-facing talus slope. Pikas like to inhabit the nooks and crannies between these rocks.
They spend the short summer stockpiling grasses and vegetation to survive the winter, insulated by the snow.
Although pikas are small, they are masters at preserving body heat. They are bad, however, at expelling extra heat. During the summer they stay cool by living under rocks, where the temperatures are up to ten degrees cooler.
“Imagine that you wear a coat 365 days a year,” Peralta explained. If you’re not able to take that jacket off, “you're going to depend on going inside where you have air conditioning.”
Because pikas are so sensitive to heat, they are especially susceptible to climatic shifts in temperature. This sensitivity is another reason why scientists are so keen to study them. Pika can provide an early warning sign that an ecosystem is in trouble.
Peralta’s research focuses on improving microclimate models. Although there is a large amount of climate data generated from weather stations around the country, the way other species, like pika, detect temperature is different from humans.
“My job is to enhance those models by trying to predict the microclimates that pikas experience on the rocky slopes from these broad scale data and, with that, improve conservation models that can better forecast into the future.”
Better models can help researchers identify where they should focus conservation efforts.
Such conservation is not only for the sake of other species, but also to protect the ecosystem services pikas provide to humans, such as spreading nutrients to improve soil health.
“Nature is not fragile. After all, nature is all about adaptive systems. So under stress, these systems will continue to evolve and persist,” Peralta said. “But what might not adapt and persist are those ecosystem services that nature is providing to us.”