Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Uncategorized Category
Click here to view all posts

Yellowstone a petri dish for climate change

Posted by: Maven on December 6, 2009 at 8:12 am

yellowstoneFrom the Los Angeles Times:

“Reporting from Yellowstone National Park – Roy Renkin is a biologist by training but a detective by inclination, and something about the willows was nagging him. The shrubs flanking a creek in Yellowstone’s Blacktail drainage had never grown so tall and lush. But why?

Many of the park’s scientists theorized it was related to the successful reintroduction of wolves, which might have pushed elk out of the area, putting an end to the constant nibbling that stunted willows’ growth.

But this summer, Renkin and a colleague arrived at their own theory: climate change.

Warmer temperatures have extended the park’s growing season for plants by up to 30%. Renkin found that given the additional growing time, willows produced powerful defensive compounds that made them unpalatable to wildlife, enabling some to grow more than twice as high.

The tentative findings are a small piece of a much larger climate puzzle whose effects are making themselves known at national parks across the country. In some cases, the changes are imperiling the very features that define some of the nation’s most-beloved parks. … “

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

December 6, 2009 · Filed Under Uncategorized

Comments

Leave a Reply