HR: 11:35h
AN: PP52A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Paleo-environmental Perspectives on Climate-change Monitoring in the National Parks of the Northern U.S. Rocky Mountains
AU: * Gray, S T
EM: sgray@montana.edu
AF: Big Sky Institute, Montana State University 106 AJM Johnson, Bozeman, MT 59717
AU: Graumlich, L J
EM: lisa@montana.edu
AF: Big Sky Institute, Montana State University 106 AJM Johnson, Bozeman, MT 59717
AU: Pederson, G T
EM: gpederson@montana.edu
AF: Big Sky Institute, Montana State University 106 AJM Johnson, Bozeman, MT 59717
AU: Fagre, D B
EM: dan_fagre@usgs.gov
AF: USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Glacier National Park, West Glacier, MT 59936
AU: Betancourt, J L
EM: jlbetanc@usgs.gov
AF: Desert Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey 1675 West Anklam Road , Tucson, AZ 85745
AU: Norris, J R
EM: jnorris@uwyo.edu
AF: Department of Botnay, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave. , Laramie, WY 82071
AU: Jackson, S T
EM: jackson@uwyo.edu
AF: Department of Botnay, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave. , Laramie, WY 82071
AB: In the face of growing visitation, encroaching development and a changing climate, the United States National Park Service has initiated a nationwide program to inventory and monitor the resources it protects. The foundation for this initiative lies in the development of baseline or reference datasets for physical and biological systems within each park unit. In a series of paleo-proxy studies from the Greater Yellowstone and Glacier National Park regions, we demonstrate that most instrumental and observational records are too short to capture a significant portion of the climatic and ecological variability that might be expected in the parks of the northern U.S. Rockies. Networks of tree-ring based temperature and precipitation reconstructions spanning the last ~1,000 yr demonstrate that the climates of these regions are not stationary. These climates are instead characterized by strong regime-like behavior over decadal to multidecadal timescales. Complimentary studies of past plant-community and landscape dynamics show how such lower-frequency variability can have a profound impact on vital park resources and amenities. In the eastern Yellowstone region, for example, persistent (20-30 yr) wet/cool periods in the 19th and early 20th centuries led to widespread recruitment of woody plants, and the legacy of these recruitment events still persists in the structure of many woodlands and forests. Studies of fossil packrat middens also suggest that at least some recent woody-plant encroachment and densification- a major management concern in the region- is related to plant late-Holocene plant migration dynamics and population processes rather than changing climate and land-use. Though the timing and effects of such events may differ, similar ecological responses to decadal/multidecadal climate variability are seen in the Glacier National Park region. In combination these studies serve to emphasize the need for careful selection of reference periods and baseline conditions used in climate-change monitoring, and this work shows the invaluable role that paleo-environmental archives can play in natural resource management. Overall, a more complete knowledge of long-duration ecological processes and lower-frequency climate variability should influence how we monitor and manage climate-change impacts throughout the northern Rockies.
DE: 1812 Drought
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1851 Plant ecology
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting