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Author: Teresa Rose Krause
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Paleobotany
Languages : en
Pages : 1104
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Book Description
The last glacial-interglacial transition in the western US (20,000-8000 years ago) was a period of rapid environmental change. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), much research has focused on postglacial vegetation changes; however, questions still remain regarding the relative trade-off between climate and nonclimatic factors, such as edaphic conditions, disturbance, and biotic interactions, in driving early postglacial vegetation development at finer spatial and temporal scales in the region. This study reconstructed vegetation development in the GYE from the time of ice retreat to the early Holocene insolation maximum (17,000-8000 years ago) at sub-regional and regional scales using fossil pollen data from three sites in the northern GYE and across a regional network of 13 previously published records. Fossil pollen data from lake sediments were compared to independent measures of climate (paleoclimate model simulations, stable isotope data), edaphic conditions (lithologic and geochemical data), and fire activity (charcoal data) to better understand climatic and nonclimatic drivers of early postglacial vegetation development. Climate was the primary driver of early postglacial vegetation development in the GYE. Increasing summer insolation and its direct effects on summer temperature and effective moisture directed changes in vegetation from pioneering herb and shrub communities to spruce parkland during the late-glacial period to subalpine forest and eventually open Douglas-fir forest by the early Holocene summer insolation maximum. Nonetheless, fire activity, site-specific edaphic conditions, and biotic interactions mediated vegetation responses to climate change. Elevated regional fire activity between 12,500 and 10,000 cal yr BP, driven by increasing summer temperatures and fuel biomass, facilitated important ecosystem changes from an Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir dominated system to one dominated by whitebark and lodgepole pine. Site-specific edaphic conditions, namely erosional processes associated with newly deglaciated terrain, inhibited early conifer expansion, and important competitive interactions between lodgepole pine and whitebark pine after the early Holocene limited the range of whitebark pine at middle elevations in the GYE. This research provides new insight into how ecosystems and plant species have responded to past climate change and is critical for better understanding local responses to regional climate change predicted in the coming decades.
Author: Teresa Rose Krause
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Paleobotany
Languages : en
Pages : 1104
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Book Description
The last glacial-interglacial transition in the western US (20,000-8000 years ago) was a period of rapid environmental change. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), much research has focused on postglacial vegetation changes; however, questions still remain regarding the relative trade-off between climate and nonclimatic factors, such as edaphic conditions, disturbance, and biotic interactions, in driving early postglacial vegetation development at finer spatial and temporal scales in the region. This study reconstructed vegetation development in the GYE from the time of ice retreat to the early Holocene insolation maximum (17,000-8000 years ago) at sub-regional and regional scales using fossil pollen data from three sites in the northern GYE and across a regional network of 13 previously published records. Fossil pollen data from lake sediments were compared to independent measures of climate (paleoclimate model simulations, stable isotope data), edaphic conditions (lithologic and geochemical data), and fire activity (charcoal data) to better understand climatic and nonclimatic drivers of early postglacial vegetation development. Climate was the primary driver of early postglacial vegetation development in the GYE. Increasing summer insolation and its direct effects on summer temperature and effective moisture directed changes in vegetation from pioneering herb and shrub communities to spruce parkland during the late-glacial period to subalpine forest and eventually open Douglas-fir forest by the early Holocene summer insolation maximum. Nonetheless, fire activity, site-specific edaphic conditions, and biotic interactions mediated vegetation responses to climate change. Elevated regional fire activity between 12,500 and 10,000 cal yr BP, driven by increasing summer temperatures and fuel biomass, facilitated important ecosystem changes from an Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir dominated system to one dominated by whitebark and lodgepole pine. Site-specific edaphic conditions, namely erosional processes associated with newly deglaciated terrain, inhibited early conifer expansion, and important competitive interactions between lodgepole pine and whitebark pine after the early Holocene limited the range of whitebark pine at middle elevations in the GYE. This research provides new insight into how ecosystems and plant species have responded to past climate change and is critical for better understanding local responses to regional climate change predicted in the coming decades.
Author: Teresa R. Krause
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 15
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Book Description
Mountain ecosystems are characterized by their complex vegetation responses to past climate variability because of the interplay between large-scale climate changes and local-scale biotic and abiotic conditions. This study reconstructs the early postglacial expansion of conifer populations in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The objective is to examine how climate change and non-climatic factors, including species characteristics, edaphic conditions and disturbance, governed postglacial vegetation changes. Spruce populations expanded first at 13 300 cal a BP, concurrent with soil development and warming summers. Subalpine fir populations expanded after 12 300 cal a BP and probably lagged spruce expansion due to differences in climatic tolerances and/or its poorer seed dispersing capacity. Pine species expanded nearly synchronously after 11 300 cal a BP in response to elevated summer temperatures and increased fire activity. Douglas-fir populations expanded last after 10 200 cal a BP during the early Holocene summer insolation maximum and cooler winters. The sequence and timing of conifer expansions in the northern GYE are consistent with the regional conifer history, indicating strong vegetation responses to millennial-scale climate change associated with the seasonal cycle of insolation across spatial scales. Nonetheless, non-climatic factors, including landscape stabilization and subsequent soil development, seed dispersing characteristics and fire, still shaped local-scale patterns of conifer expansion.
Author: James V. Benes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16
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Book Description
The postglacial vegetation and fire history of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is known from low and middle elevations, but little is known about high elevations. Paleoecologic data from Fairy Lake in the Bridger Range, southwestern Montana, provide a new high-elevation record that spans the last 15,000 yr. The records suggest a period of tundra-steppe vegitation prior to ca. 13,700 cal yr BP was followed by open Picea forest at ca. 11,200 cal yr BP. Pinus-Pseudotsuga parkland was present after ca. 9200 cal yr BP, when conditions were warmer-drier than presernt. It was replaced by mixed-conifer parkland at ca. 5000 cal yr BP. Present-day subalpine forest established at ca. 2800 cal yr BP. Increased avalanche or mass-wasting aactivity during the early late-glacial period, the Younger Dryas chronozone, and Neoglaciation suggest cool, wet periods. Sites at different elevations in the region show (1) sunchronous vegetation responses to late-glacial warming; (2) widespread xerothermic forests and frequent fires in the early-to-middle Holocene; and (3) a trend to forest closure during late-Holocene colling. Conditions in the Bridger Range were, however, wetter than other areas during the early Holocene. Across the Northern Rockies, postglacial warming progressed from west to east, reflecting range-specific responses to insolation-driven changes in climate.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botany
Languages : en
Pages : 378
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Book Description
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309083451
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199
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Book Description
Ecological Dynamics on Yellowstone's Northern Range discusses the complex management challenges in Yellowstone National Park. Controversy over the National Park Service's approach of "natural regulation" has heightened in recent years because of changes in vegetation and other ecosystem components in Yellowstone's northern range. Natural regulation minimizes human impacts, including management intervention by the National Park Service, on the park ecosystem. Many have attributed these changes to increased size of elk and other ungulate herds. This report examines the evidence that increased ungulate populations are responsible for the changes in vegetation and that the changes represent a major and serious change in the Yellowstone ecosystem. According to the authors, any human intervention to protect species such as the aspen and those that depend on them should be prudently localized rather than ecosystem-wide. An ecosystem-wide approach, such as reducing ungulate populations, could be more disruptive. The report concludes that although dramatic ecological change does not appear to be imminent, approaches to dealing with potential human-caused changes in the ecosystem, including those related to climate change, should be considered now. The need for research and public education is also compelling.
Author: Robert B. Keiter
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300059274
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 452
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Book Description
In 1872, Congress designated Yellowstone National Park as the world's first National Park. In this book, various experts in science, economics and law discuss key resource management issues in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, and how humans should interact with the environment of this area.
Author: Robert A. Garrott
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080921051
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 712
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Book Description
This book is an authoritative work on the ecology of some of America's most iconic large mammals in a natural environment - and of the interplay between climate, landscape, and animals in the interior of the world's first and most famous national park.Central Yellowstone includes the range of one of the largest migratory populations of bison in North America as well as a unique elk herd that remains in the park year round. These populations live in a varied landscape with seasonal and often extreme patterns of climate and food abundance. The reintroduction of wolves into the park a decade ago resulted in scientific and public controversy about the effect of large predators on their prey, a debate closely examined in the book. Introductory chapters describe the geography, geology and vegetation of the ecosystem. The elk and bison are then introduced and their population ecology described both pre- and post– wolf introduction, enabling valuable insights into the demographic and behavioral consequences for their ungulate prey. Subsequent chapters describe the wildlife-human interactions and show how scientific research can inform the debate and policy issues surrounding winter recreation in Yellowstone. The book closes with a discussion of how this ecological knowledge can be used to educate the public, both about Yellowstone itself and about science, ecology and the environment in general. Yellowstone National Park exemplifies some of the currently most hotly debated and high-profile ecological, wildlife management, and environmental policy issues and this book will have broad appeal not only to academic ecologists, but also to natural resource students, managers, biologists, policy makers, administrators and the general public. - Unrivalled descriptions of ecological processes in a world famous ecosystem, based on information from 16 years of painstaking field work and collaborations among 66 scientists and technical experts and 15 graduate studies - Detailed studies of two charismatic North American herbivore species – elk and bison - Description of the restoration of wolves into central Yellowstone and their ecological interactions with their elk and bison prey - Illustrated with numerous evocative colour photographs and stunning maps
Author: Richard A. Marston
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Conservation of natural resources
Languages : en
Pages : 9
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Book Description
This paper describes major watershed systems and broad patterns of vegetation within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, explains the geographic links between these systems, and proposes factors that could be used to measure the integrity (condition and naturalness) of watersheds and vegetation. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem can be geographically defined as the Yellowstone Plateau and elevations in the 14 surrounding mountain ranges above the 2130-meter (7000-foot) contour; certain lower elevations need to be included to account for some ecological processes. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the headwaters for three major continental-scale river systems: the Missouri- Mississippi, Snake-Columbia, and Green-Colorado. Features, processes, and materials of watersheds provide structure and key functions to ecosystems of Greater Yellowstone. Changes in elevation ? and the accordant changes in precipitation, temperature, land forms, and the stream network ? exert the strongest control on the distribution of plant species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The condition and naturalness of watersheds and vegetation remain to be quantified, but both decline with distance away from the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem due to timber harvest, oil and gas exploration and development, mineral exploration and development, reservoir operations, flood control, agricultural development, and livestock grazing.
Author: Linda L. Wallace
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300127758
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 400
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Book Description
Americans currently choose their president through the electoral college, an extraordinarily complex mechanism that may elect a candidate who does not receive the most votes. In this provocative book, George Edwards III argues that, contrary to what supporters of the electoral college claim, there is no real justification for a system that might violate majority rule. Drawing on systematic data, Edwards finds that the electoral college does not protect the interests of small states or racial minorities, does not provide presidents with effective coalitions for governing, and does little to protect the American polity from the alleged harms of direct election of the president. In fact, the electoral college distorts the presidential campaign so that candidates ignore most small states and some large ones and pay little attention to minorities, and it encourages third parties to run presidential candidates and discourages party competition in many states. Edwards demonstrates effectively that direct election of the president without a runoff maximizes political equality and eliminates the distortions in the political system caused by the electoral college.
Author: P. J. White
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674076419
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 362
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Book Description
The world's first national park is constantly changing. How we understand and respond to recent events putting species under stress will determine the future of ecosystems millions of years in the making. Marshaling expertise from over 30 contributors, Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition examines three primary challenges to the park's ecology.
