Part 1.
This is a map of Northwest Wyoming with Yellowstone NP, Grand Teton NP, and Shoshone NF highlighted in green. These are my three areas of biogeographical study.
These are climographs for Yellowstone NP, Grand Teton NP, and Shoshone NF.
These are the soil types for Yellowstone NP, Grand Teton NP, and Shoshone NF.
Yellowstone NP
Grand Teton NP
Shoshone NF
Shoshone NF is a massive mountainous region. Shoshone's geology is favorable for the
occurrence of minerals deposits like silver and gold (Alexander, 2012). Grand Teton NP has steep mountain peaks on the western border, while the eastern half of the park is a wide, flat valley. The Teton range is made of 2.7 billion-year old metamorphic rock (NPS, 2020). As a geological hotspot, Yellowstone NP contains unique activity characterized by geysers and geothermal springs. Consequently, the silts of local streams contain abundant volcanic shards and small cinders (Horberg, 1940).
Due to high elevation, the whole of Northwest Wyoming has a subarctic climate with dry late-summers. It is actually hypothesized that beaver damming in northern Yellowstone NP
has been influenced by the progression of this subarctic climate (Persico, 2009). However, climate change has also caused a significant decrease in mountain snowpack in this region (Acharya, 2012). All three locations have similar temperature trends. Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP also have similar precipitation patterns. Annual precipitation for this region is greatest in the western parts of Yellowstone NP (Rice, 2012). However, Shoshone NF has noticeably lower rainfall in the winter months than the two national parks.
The three soil samples above come from different types of environments. The sample from Yellowstone NP came from a region of the park where geothermal activity is present, which gives the soil little nutritional value to support trees. The surface of this soil is absent of flora. The sample from Grand Teton NP came from a drier part of the valley. This ecosystem supports many flora species, possibly due to local shrubs being known to increase total and available
soil nutrients (Douglas, 1998). Grazing by large mammals may also strongly influence soil nutrients, due to its affect on competition between plants and microorganisms (Tracy, 1997). Grand Teton NP also has a wetland meadow nearby Jackson Lake, which has dark moist soil (Kindscher, 1997). The sample from Shoshone NF came from the middle of the forest. Here, the soil provides enough nutrients to support the growth of trees.
Works Cited
Acharya, A. Quantitative Assessment of Climate Change Impacts
on the Hydrology of the North Platte
River Watershed, Wyoming. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering Vol. 17, pp. 1071-1083 (2012).
Alexander, J. Analysis of the Management Situation. USDA Forest Service pp. 72 (2012).
Douglas, A. Ungulate vs. Landscape Control of Soil C and N Processes in Grasslands of Yellowstone
National Park. Ecology, Vol. 79, No. 7, pp. 2229–2241 (1998).
Horberg, L. Geomorphic Problems and Glacial Geology of the Yellowstone Valley, Park County,
Montana. The Journal of Geology Vol. 48, No. 3,
pp. 275-303 (1940).
Kindscher, K. Identifying wetland meadows in Grand Teton National Park using remote
sensing and
average wetland values. Wetlands Ecology and Management Vol. 5, pp. 265–273 (1998).
NPS. Grand Teton Geologic Activity. National Park Service (2020).
Persico, L. Holocene beaver damming, fluvial geomorphology, and climate in Yellowstone
National
Park, Wyoming. Quaternary Research Vol. 71, pp. 340–353 (2009).
Rice, J. Climate Change on the Shoshone National Forest,
Wyoming: A Synthesis of Past Climate,
Climate
Projections, and Ecosystem Implications. USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications
327, pp. 1-59 (2012).
Tracy, B. Herbivore influence on soil microbial biomass and nitrogen mineralization
in a northern
grassland ecosystem: Yellowstone National Park. Oecologia Vol. 114, pp. 556-562 (1997).
Part 2.
Yellowstone National Park has a great variety of trees and grasses. Elevation is the most important factor
affecting the distribution of plant species (Marston, 1991). Elevation influences temperature and moisture availability (Marston, 1991). Bison can traverse large areas of space
in relatively short amounts of time, which improves their chances of finding available food (Plumb, 2009). Their range is affected by food competition with elk (Plumb, 2009). Cutthroat Trout use the tributaries connected to Lake Yellowstone for breeding (Koel, 2005). They have been isolated to the Yellowstone National Park area due to waterfalls present along the Yellowstone River (Koel, 2005).
Bison Picture and Range
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2017/05/02/bringing-back-the-bison/
https://mountainjournal.org/the-killing-fields-return-for-yellowstone-bison
Cutthroat Trout Picture and Range
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/yellowstone-cutthroat-trout.htm
https://www.nps.gov/articles/status-and-conservation-of-yellowstone-cutthroat-trout-in-the-gye.htm
Historically, Grand Teton National Park has had alpine meadow communities (Whitlock, 1993). However, climate change has allowed subalpine forests to begin encroaching on the alpine meadow communities (Whitlock, 1993). Male pronghorns have been observed to chase coyotes, possibly to defend their population (Berger, 2005). These coyotes might otherwise limit the population by hunting young pronghorns (Berger, 2005). Sagebrush has deep roots that allow
it to survive long periods of time without precipitation (Jakubauskas, 2001). Sagebrush population is limited by herbivores that forage it, such as bison, elk, and pronghorn (Jakubauskas, 2001).
Pronghorn Picture and Range
https://greekmountainman.com/pronghorn-antelope-grand-tetons/
https://www.wyofile.com/the-perilous-journey-of-wyomings-migrating-pronghorn/
Sagebrush Picture and Range
http://www.southernrockiesfirescience.org/wyoming-sagebrush
https://wrangle.org/ecotype/north-american-sagebrush-steppe-and-shrubland
There is a wide variety of vegetation in Shoshone National Forest due to variations in elevation, aspect, latitude, climate, site
conditions, and past disturbances (Rice, 2012). Bighorn sheep are well adapted to traverse rocky, mountainous regions (Buechner, 1960). Bighorn sheep are more fearful of humans than other wild herbivores, so they have tended to restrict their range to areas of little human activity (Buechner, 1960). Cougars have strong arms and necks for grasping onto prey large herbivorous prey animals (Wright, 2007). They once could be found anywhere that deer could be found (Wright, 2007). Due to land being divided up by humans, cougars now generally restrict themselves to a few large parcels of land uninhabited by humans (Wright, 2007).
Bighorn Sheep Picture and Range
https://www.pics4learning.com/details.php?img=bighornsheep1.jpg
https://www.wyofile.com/stockmen-bighorns-butt-heads-western-showdown/
Cougar Picture and Range
https://trib.com/outdoors/wyoming-biologist-says-mountain-lions-are-watching/article_fb81fb15-54fa-5b0b-9a20-dce46873dcf0.html
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/WGFD/media/content/PDF/Wildlife/Large%20Carnivore/MTNLION_MORTALITY10-12.pdf
Fire is the primary disturbance in Yellowstone National Park. Burn severity and patch size has significant effects on most ecological functions (Turner, 1997). In fire-resilient plant communities, postfire succession usually leads to vegetation similar to the pre-fire
community (Westerling, 2011). However, some fires are so intense that they severely reduce the heterogony of the pre-fire landscape and community, so the post-fire landscape in extreme examples lacks diversity (Turner, 1994).
https://www.alamy.com/forest-fire-aftermath-yellowstone-national-park-wyoming-image2669489.html
Fire is the primary disturbance in Grand Teton National Park. Increases in large, high-severity fires during the
mid-century reduced the forest extent in the park to
~34,000 ha (Hansen, 2020). After decades, species richness is greater in the more severely burned plots than in the moderately burned or the unburned parts of the forest (Doyle, 1998). Climate change is expected to cause larger, more severe fires in the park's future (Szpakowski, 2021).
https://www.nps.gov/grte/learn/nature/fireecology.htm
Fire is the dominant disturbance in Shoshone National Forest. One of the worst fires occurred on the slopes just above Swamp Lake Fen (Heidel, 2017). The biggest contributor to this fire was the abundance of downed, dead trees (Menlove, 2008). Fire disturbances in the park have been reduced in some areas by management
activities, which mostly occurs at low elevations where the landscape is more easily accessible (Meyer, 2006).
https://peakvisor.com/park/shoshone-national-forest.html
Works Cited
Berger, K. Defense of pronghorn fawns by adult male pronghorn against coyotes. Western North
American Naturalist Vol. 65, No. 2, Article 17, pp. 267-268 (2005).
Buechner, H. The Bighorn Sheep in the United States, Its Past, Present, and Future. Wildlife
Monographs, No. 4, pp. 3-174 (1960).
Doyle, K. Seventeen Years of Forest Succession Following the Waterfalls Canyon Fire in Grand Teton
National Park, Wyoming. Wildland Fire Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 45-55 (1998).
Hansen, W. Can wildland fire management alter 21st-century subalpine fire and forests in Grand Teton
National Park, Wyoming, USA? Ecological Applications Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 1-15 (2020).
Heidel, B. Fens and Their Rare Plants in the Beartooth Mountains, Shoshone National Forest,
Wyoming. USDA, USFS, Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report 369 (2017).
Jakubauskas, M. Spectral and biophysical relationships of montane sagebrush communities in multi-
temporal SPOT XS data. Remote sensing, vol. 22, no. 9, 1767–1778 (2001).
Koel, T. Nonnative Lake Trout Result in Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Decline and Impacts to Bears and
Anglers. Fisheries Vol. 30, No. 11, pp. 10-19 (2005).
Marston, R. Watersheds and Vegetation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wiley for Society for
Conservation Biology Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 338-346 (1991).
Menlove, J. Forest Resources of the Shoshone National Forest. USDA, USFS, Rocky Mountain
Research Station pp. 1-13 (2008).
Meyer, C. Historic Variability for the Upland Vegetation of the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming.
USFS Agreement No. 1102, pp. 1-181 (2006).
Plumb, G. Carrying capacity, migration, and dispersal in Yellowstone bison. Biological Conservation
Vol. 142, pp. 2377–2387 (2009).
Rice, J. Climate Change on the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming: A Synthesis of Past Climate,
Climate Projections, and Ecosystem Implications. USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications
327, pp. 1-59 (2012).
Szpakowski, D. A study of the relationship between fire hazard and burn severity in Grand Teton
National Park, USA. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Vol. 98 (2021).
Turner, M. Effects of Fire on Landscape Heterogeneity in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Journal
of Vegetation Science Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 731-742 (1994).
Turner, M. Effects of Fire Size and Pattern on Early Succession in Yellowstone National Park.
Ecological Monographs Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 411-433 (1997).
Westerling, A. Continued warming could transform Greater Yellowstone fire regimes by the mid-21st
century. PNAS Vol. 108, No. 32, pp. 13165–13170 (2011).
Whitlock, C. Postglacial Vegetation and Climate of Grand Teton and Southern Yellowstone National
Parks. Ecological Society of America Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 173-198 (1993).
Wright, B. Cougar. Hinterland Who’s Who pp.1-7 (2007).
Part 3.
Humans introduced the non-native lake trout to Lake Yellowstone, which established a reproducing population (Ruzycki, 2003). The native cutthroat trout are vulnerable, as the two trout species compete for resources (Koel, 2005).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_trout
Road construction is one of the primary human disturbances in Grand Teton National Park (National Park Service, 2016). The pronghorn is vulnerable, as pronghorns will need to cross these dangerous roads to find resources (Whitlock, 1993).
https://www.ennomotive.com/road-construction-innovation
Fragmentation due to human land use is a threat to the Shoshone National Forest ecosystem (Alexander, 2012). The cougar is vulnerable, as cougars generally require large undisturbed territories for hunting and reproducing (Wright, 2007).
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Pattern-of-landscape-fragmentation_fig8_320443319
According to the RCP 8.5 scenario, the average daily max temp is expected to rise by 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 in Yellowstone National Park (NOAA, 2005). Wildfire events will likely occur more frequently as the climate becomes warmer (Stevens-Rumann, 2018). The bison will be vulnerable, as fires occurring too frequently may reduce its ability to forage (Plumb, 2009).
According to the RCP 8.5 scenario, the average daily max temp is expected to rise by 6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 in Grand Teton National Park (NOAA, 2005). Wildfire events will likely occur more frequently as the climate becomes warmer (Stevens-Rumann, 2018). The sagebrush will be vulnerable, as they make up the fuel that will produce more frequent fires (Jakubauskas, 2001).
According to the RCP 8.5 scenario, the average daily max temp is expected to rise by 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 in Shoshone National Forest (NOAA, 2005). Wildfire events will likely occur more frequently as the climate becomes warmer (Stevens-Rumann, 2018). The cougar will be vulnerable, as fires occurring too frequently could stress their habitat and hunting grounds (Wright, 2007).
Yellowstone National Park needs to be maintained and restored in a way that both promotes the natural ecosystem and accounts for the human presence in the park. The park is extremely vulnerable to the influence of misguided efforts of policy makers (Chase 1987). Humans either need to seriously reevaluate how to sustain all of the park's natural inhabitants, or humans need to retreat from the park. I would suggest allowing tourists to only visit a small portion of the park, while allowing the vast majority to be left undisturbed. I would also suggest that management of the park focus on three goals: eradicate invasive species, reintroduce natural species, and oversee fire disturbance.
Grand Teton National Park conservation efforts need to be focused on restoring predators in a timely manner. The park is vulnerable to hosting a community of prey animals that are unfamiliar with predators (Berger, 2001). If left unattended, this could lead to massive losses of prey animals in the event that predators are reintroduced at a later time. I would restore wolf, coyote, and grizzly bear populations as soon as possible to reduce the amount of time needed to adjust the current community to predators.
Shoshone National Forest conservation efforts need to be focused on assessing and managing different habitats within in the forest. Many rare plant species within the forest are vulnerable due to managing the entire forest as one habitat, while these rare species require different habitats to survive (Fertig, 1988). I would suggest identifying different individual habitats within the broader ecosystem of the forest, then the smaller habitats could be managed in a way that supports their individual needs. This would ensure that the rare plant species will not be overwhelmed by a more general approach to forest conservation.
Works Cited
Alexander, J. Analysis of the Management Situation. USDA Forest Service pp. 72 (2012).
Berger, J. Recolonizing Carnivores and Naive Prey: Conservation Lessons from Pleistocene
Extinctions. Science Vol. 291, pp. 1036-1039 (2001).
Chase, A. Playing God in Yellowstone. Atlantic Monthly Press pp. 446 (1987).
Fertig, W. The Status of Rare Plants on Shoshone National Forest: 1995-97 Survey Results. Challenge
Cost Share Agreement No. 110214109521 (1988).
Jakubauskas, M. Spectral and biophysical relationships of montane sagebrush communities in multi-
temporal SPOT XS data. Remote sensing, vol. 22, no. 9, 1767–1778 (2001).
Koel, T. Nonnative Lake Trout Result in Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Decline and Impacts to Bears and
Anglers. Fisheries Vol. 30, No. 11, pp. 10-19 (2005).
National Park Service. Disturbed Lands. National Park Service Grand Teton (2016).
NOAA. Climate Explorer. (2005).
Plumb, G. Carrying capacity, migration, and dispersal in Yellowstone bison. Biological Conservation
Vol. 142, pp. 2377–2387 (2009).
Ruzycki, J. Effects of Introduced Lake Trout on Native Cutthroat Trout in Yellowstone Lake.
Ecological Applications Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 23-37 (2003).
Stevens-Rumann, C. Evidence for declining forest resilience to wildfires under climate change. Ecology
Letters Vol. 21, Issue 2, pp. 243-252 (2018).
Whitlock, C. Postglacial Vegetation and Climate of Grand Teton and Southern Yellowstone National
Parks. Ecological Society of America Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 173-198 (1993).
Wright, B. Cougar. Hinterland Who’s Who pp.1-7 (2007).
Comments
Post a Comment