Quantifying effects of climate change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
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Our goal is to determine how interannual variability in precipitation and temperature affects montane meadow communities of plants, birds, and butterflies at a landscape level. The central hypothesis for the proposed research is that soil moisture is a major environmental driver in this system, and that changes in soil moisture will be differentially reflected across the moisture gradient of meadows and their associated plant and animal communities.
With drying trends, forbs (flowering plants) and grasses, which use water from higher in the soil horizon, may decrease in cover whereas woody plants will increase. Insects associated with forbs and grasses are expected to be more significantly affected than those associated with woody species. Birds associated with mesic to hydric meadows may be more affected than those associated with xeric meadows.
The overall objective of the research is to quantify changes in soil moisture and species composition to provide short-term (decadal) indications of how climatic variation is manifested in this pristine environment. These short-term indicators will then be valuable in tracking longer-term (multi-decade) changes and understanding climate changes at a landscape scale.
Copyright © 2005, Diane Debinski. All rights reserved.