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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2019

Yellowstone convenes science information sharing panel on aquatic invasive species

Yellowstone National Park (YNP) supports one of the most significant aquatic ecosystems in the U.S. Headwater streams and rivers emerge from the park and join to become three of America’s most important waterways and ultimately flow into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans: the Yellowstone River, the Missouri River and the Snake River. At the heart of YNP lies Yellowstone Lake – the largest alpine body of water in North America. The park encompasses about 2.25 million acres, five percent of which is covered by water, including more than 220 lakes and 2,650 miles of streams.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming↗
USGS2023

Vital sign monitoring is good medicine for parks

Nearly 70 years ago a young ranger naturalist working in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Frederick B. Turner, became fascinated with the abundance of frogs next to his cabin at “Soldier Creek” (known as Lodge Creek today). This interest blossomed into Turner’s PhD research and his publication in 1960 about the local population of Columbia spotted frogs (shown to right) became a classic for herpetologists. Unfortunately, the frog population Turner studied had a less positive future in store. Research by Idaho State University biologists in the 1990s revealed the Lodge Creek population had dwindled by 80%. Now, most of Turner’s study area is bereft of spotted frogs, and the remnant population near Yellowstone Lake is affected by a steep decline in reproduction and frequent disease outbreaks. Meanwhile, amphibian population declines documented worldwide, including in national parks of the western U.S., have become common. In YNP and neighboring Grand Teton National Park, we face the important questions of whether widespread amphibian declines are occurring here and if so, what do they portend. Can amphibians inform us about the health and changing conditions of wetlands in YNP? What are the implications of diminishing wetlands for other water-dependent species? And, more broadly, can amphibian and other living organisms serve as reliable indicators or vital signs for park health? In this issue of Yellowstone Science, we discuss how ecosystem science is taking cues from the medical field by relying on vital sign monitoring programs to assess ecosystem health.

Yellowstone Science↗
USGS2011

Infectious diseases in Yellowstone’s canid community

Each summer Yellowstone Wolf Project staff visit den sites to monitor the success of wolf reproduction and pup rearing behavior. For the purposes of wolf monitoring, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is divided into two study areas, the northern range and the interior, each distinguished by their ecological and physiographical differences. The 1,000 square kilometer northern range, characterized by lower elevations (1,500–2,200 m), serves as prime winter habitat for ungulates and supports a higher density of wolves than the interior (20–99 wolves/1,000 km 2 versus 2–11 wolves/1,000 km 2 ). The interior of the park encompasses 7,991 square kilometers, is higher in elevation, receives higher annual snowfall, and generally supports lower densities of wolves and ungulates. During the Yellowstone Wolf Project’s 2005 observations on the northern range, researchers noticed that some wolf pups were disappearing and those that remained were unusually listless. The Slough Creek pups, at first numbering 18, dwindled to three survivors. Similar findings were mirrored at other den sites across the northern range. When annual den surveys were conducted in late July, all that remained were scattered piles of bones and fur. Coyotes suffered similar setbacks in 2005, with many of the survivors exhibiting neurological shakes and tremors. The park’s canids had been affected by something, but what? Prompted by what seemed to be a disease outbreak, the Yellowstone Wolf Project, the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC), and the University of Minnesota decided to take several collaborative approaches toward improving our understanding of the presence and role of infectious disease in Yellowstone’s canid community. Several serological studies have been conducted in the past among the park’s coyotes (Gese et al. 1997) and cougars (Biek 2006), providing a helpful foundation on which to build and compare. A serological survey was conducted, using serum samples collected during routine wolf and coyote captures over a period of 18 years (Almberg et al. 2009). Simulation models were used to explore the dynamics of canine distemper virus (Almberg et al. 2010)—one of the more prominent pathogens in terms of its effects on its hosts—and several long-term pathogen surveillance projects were initiated which are intended to someday provide a foundation for more advanced genetic-based analyses of pathogen dynamics. Since these initial efforts, the group has also expanded the research to include a study of sarcoptic mange, which began affecting wolves and coyotes in YNP in 2006 and 2007.

Yellowstone National Park↗
USGS2006

Grizzly bear nutrition and ecology studies in Yellowstone National Park

T HE CHANCE TO SEE a wild grizzly bear is often the first or second reason people give for visiting Yellow - stone National Park. Public interest in bears is closely coupled with a desire to perpetuate this wild symbol of the American West. Grizzly bears have long been described as a wilderness species requiring large tracts of undisturbed habitat. However, in today’s world, most grizzly bears live in close proximity to humans (Schwartz et al. 2003). Even in Yellowstone National Park, the impacts of humans can affect the long-term survival of bears (Gunther et al. 2002). As a consequence, the park has long supported grizzly bear research in an effort to understand these impacts. Most people are familiar with what happened when the park and the State of Montana closed open-pit garbage dumps in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when at least 229 bears died as a direct result of conflict with humans. However, many may not be as familiar with the ongoing changes in the park’s plant and animal communities that have the potential to further alter the park’s ability to support grizzly bears.

Wyoming↗
USGS2016

Territoriality and inter-pack aggression in gray wolves: shaping a social carnivore's life history

When Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book in 1894 and included the famous line "For the strength of the Wolf is the Pack, and the strength of the Pack is the Wolf," he would have had no idea that over a century later, scientific research would back up his poetic phrase. Recent studies in Yellowstone have found that both the individual wolf and the collective pack rely on each other and play important roles in territoriality. At a time when most fairy tales and fables were portraying wolves as demonic killers or, at best, slapstick gluttons, Kipling seemed to have a respect or even reverence for the wolf. Wolves in The Jungle Book raise and mentor the main character Mowgli, with the pack's leader eventually dying to save the "man-cub" from a pack of wolves. Kipling may have extended intra- pack benevolence to a human boy for literary sake, but he was clearly enthralled with how pack members treat each other. As wolf packs are almost always family units, most commonly comprised of a breeding pair and their offspring from several years, amiable behavior within the pack is unsurprising. By contrast, wolf packs are fiercely intolerant of their neighbors, their rivals. And this competition is proving to be an important facet in the life of a wolf and its pack.

Yellowstone Science↗
USGS2016

Infectious diseases of wolves in Yellowstone

The summer of 2005 began with such promise for wolves in Yellowstone. The population had been at an all-time high the last few years, and the wolves appeared to be in good condition. Several packs had been particularly busy during the breeding season, and early summer pup counts suggested another healthy crop of new wolves rising through the ranks.

Colorado↗
USGS2015

Monitoring Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem wetlands: Can long-term monitoring help us understand their future?

In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), changes in the drying cycles of wetlands have been documented. Wetlands are areas where the water table is at or near the land surface and standing shallow water is present for much or all of the growing season. We discuss how monitoring data can be used to document variation in annual flooding and drying patterns of wetlands monitored across Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, investigate how these patterns are related to a changing climate, and explore how drying of wetlands may impact amphibians. The documented declines of some amphibian species are of growing concern to scientists and land managers alike, in part because disappearances have occurred in some of the most protected places. These disappearances are a recognized component of what is being described as Earth’s sixth mass extinction.

Wyoming↗
USGS2019

Patterns of primary production and ecological drought in Yellowstone

Introduction: Photosynthesis converts sunlight into stored energy in millions of leaves, flowers and seeds that maintain the web of life in Yellowstone. This transformation of energy fixes carbon, supplies organic matter to soils, and can become fuel for wildfire. As the first link of the food chain, new plant biomass is called primary production and provides energy to consumers, including wildlife. While Yellowstone is a mountain environment with deep winter snowpack, the park can get very dry in some years as evidenced by massive wildfires in 1988 and 2016. Droughts like these not only contribute to fire potential, but they affect primary production, the food chain and likely will play an increasingly important role in transforming vegetation structure and composition in the future. Meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought have been assessed quantitatively for many years, but key indicators of drought in wildland ecosystems have not been formally defined until recently (Crausbay et al., 2017). One promising new method to do this is by measuring how vegetation responds to negative effects of drought, and positive effects of favorable conditions that offset negative effects of drought. The balance of drought stress and growth has important implications for future vegetation condition as the climate of Yellowstone changes. Monitoring primary production, and predicting future vegetation changes are needed to provide a comprehensive view of park health and anticipate future ecosystem changes (Crabtree et al. 2009, Nemani et al. 2009). Although an important indicator of ecosystem condition, primary production can be time and resource-intensive to monitor in wildland settings using traditional ground-based methods such as clipping and weighing. Fortunately, ground-based methods can be complemented and enhanced by monitoring primary production with satellite imagery. Measurements of solar radiation reflectance in visible and near infra-red wavelengths can indicate primary production at frequent weekly intervals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) on satellites operated by NASA. The Greater Yellowstone Inventory and Monitoring Network (GRYN) uses this information to track changes in primary production across Yellowstone over time. They link these measurements to vegetation types, soils, and climate to understand where and when changes in production have occurred and may occur in the future.

Yellowstone National Park↗
USGS2019

The Yellowstone River fish-kill: Fish health informs and is informed by vital signs monitoring

Trout are socioeconomically and ecologically important in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA); yet these fish face numerous threats. Disease may begin to play a larger role in reducing fish populations, partly because many existing threats may interact to exacerbate the frequency, extent, and severity of fish diseases (Lafferty 2009). For example, habitat loss and low summer flows might interact to stress fish, making them more susceptible to disease while also increasing fish densities in microhabitats, thereby creating conditions where infectious diseases are more easily spread. Conservation and management efforts to mitigate these threats often involve reactionary measures to unforeseen events. Long-term monitoring of aquatic vital signs and fish health, however, may provide important insights for predicting the spread of fish diseases and the extent and severity of outbreaks.

Idaho, Montana, Wyoming↗
USGS2019

Yellowstone’s birds are vital

Traveling through Yellowstone National Park (YNP), visitors frequently stop to enjoy the park’s birds: small songbirds flitting about the willows, sandhill cranes engaged in their ritual mating dances, or myriad species of waterfowl loafing in one of the park's many wetlands. Typically while driving the roads of YNP, a majority of visitors consider a stopped car and raised binoculars a sure sign of some large mammal sighting. Bird watchers in YNP are familiar with this expectation and steel themselves to deliver the tough news. Certainly the park boasts its share of large charismatic birds, including trumpeter swans and bald and golden eagles; however, next to the bison, wolves, bears, and elk that bring so many visitors to Yellowstone, the park’s birds often seem overlooked.

Wyoming↗
USGS2002

Gas geochemistry of the Valles caldera region, New Mexico and comparisons with gases at Yellowstone, Long Valley and other geothermal systems

Noncondensible gases from hot springs, fumaroles, and deep wells within the Valles caldera geothermal system (210-300??C) consist of roughly 98.5 mo1% CO2, 0.5 mol% H2S, and 1 mol% other components. 3He/4He ratios indicate a deep magmatic source (R/Ra up to 6) whereas ??13C-CO2 values (-3 to -5???) do not discriminate between a mantle/magmatic source and a source from subjacent, hydrothermally altered Paleozoic carbonate rocks. Regional gases from sites within a 50-km radius beyond Valles caldera are relatively enriched in CO2 and He, but depleted in H2S compared to Valles gases. Regional gases have R/Ra values ???1.2 due to more interaction with the crust and/or less contribution from the mantle. Carbon sources for regional CO2 are varied. During 1982-1998, repeat analyses of gases from intracaldera sites at Sulphur Springs showed relatively constant CH4, H2, and H2S contents. The only exception was gas from Footbath Spring (1987-1993), which experienced increases in these three components during drilling and testing of scientific wells VC-2a and VC-2b. Present-day Valles gases contain substantially less N2 than fluid inclusion gases trapped in deep, early-stage, post-caldera vein minerals. This suggests that the long-lived Valles hydrothermal system (ca. 1 Myr) has depleted subsurface Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of nitrogen. When compared with gases from many other geothermal systems, Valles caldera gases are relatively enriched in He but depleted in CH4, N2 and Ar. In this respect, Valles gases resemble end-member hydrothermal and magmatic gases discharged at hot spots (Galapagos, Kilauea, and Yellowstone). Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research↗
USGS2014

Hydrogeology of the Old Faithful area, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, and its relevance to natural resources and infrastructure

A panel of leading experts (The Old Faithful Science Review Panel) was convened by Yellowstone National Park (YNP) to review and summarize the geological and hydrological understanding that can inform National Park Service management of the Upper Geyser Basin area. We give an overview of present geological and hydrological knowledge of the Old Faithful hydrothermal (hot water) system and related thermal areas in the Upper Geyser Basin. We prioritize avenues for improving our understanding of key knowledge gaps that limit informed decision-making regarding human use in this fragile natural landscape. Lastly, we offer guidelines to minimize impacts to the hydrothermal system that could be used to aid decisions by park management. Old Faithful sits within the Upper Geyser Basin, an area of abundant hydrothermal activity where boiling waters extend from the surface to significant depth within glacial sediments and underlying volcanic rocks. The geyser systems are directly fed by waters recharged decades to millennia ago, which are surrounded by colder, younger waters. Activity of the geysers is controlled by complex subsurface plumbing with fractures and conduits separated by regions of low permeability. Observations over the past century indicate that the thermal areas and their features are both fragile and highly dynamic. Although Old Faithful has erupted regularly for the past 150 years, it exhibits changes in eruptive behavior over time, and the average interval between eruptions has increased by about 50 percent over the past 50 years. It is clear that human activity has modified the hydrothermal system in the past; conversely, natural features pose ongoing hazards to humans and human infrastructure. Current (2014) long-term programs to measure heat discharge by chloride-flux monitoring, and more recently by thermal-infrared imaging, are crucial for assessing the status of the hydrothermal system. Complementary studies could include airborne resistivity, environmental tracers, numerical modeling, and greater emphasis on measuring the discharge of water during geyser eruptions. Such data are needed to better understand the subsurface plumbing systems that feed the geysers. Further understanding can be gained through installation of shallow groundwater observation wells, surface geophysical studies, and direct measurement of temperature gradients near the surface. It also is critical to archive existing data from all studies in a manner that will be readily accessible to scientists and decision makers. Monitoring and data collection can be achieved through the YNP geology program, by direct funding to other groups, or by encouraging and facilitating externally funded research. There are many documented examples at YNP and elsewhere where human infrastructure and natural thermal features have negatively affected each other. Unless action is taken, human conflicts with the Old Faithful hydrothermal system are likely to increase over the coming years. This is partly because of the increase in park visitation over the past decades, but also because the interval between eruptions of Old Faithful has increased, lengthening the time spent (and services needed) for each visitor at Old Faithful. To avoid an increase in visitor impacts, the National Park Service should consider 2 alternate strategies to accommodate people, vehicles, and services in the Upper Geyser Basin, such as shuttle services from staging (parking and dining) areas with little or no recent hydrothermal activity. We further suggest that YNP consider a zone system to guide maintenance and development of infrastructure in the immediate Old Faithful area. A “red” zone includes hydrothermally active land where new development is discouraged and existing infrastructure is modified with great care. An outer “green” zone represents areas where cooler temperatures and less hydrothermal flow are thought to exist, and where development and maintenance could proceed as occurs elsewhere in the park. An intermediate “yellow” zone would require preliminary assessment of subsurface temperatures and gas concentrations to assess suitability for infrastructure development. The panel recommends that YNP management follow the lead of the National Park System Advisory Board Science Committee (2012) by applying the “precautionary principle” when making decisions regarding the interaction of hydrothermal phenomena and park infrastructure in the Old Faithful area and other thermal areas within YNP.

Wyoming↗