Integrated Science in
Central Yellowstone
|
|
Montana State University-Bozeman
California State University-Monterey
Patrick White |
A National Treasure and Natural Resource Management Controversy
Yellowstone
National Park represents a national treasure with an extremely large and diverse
constituency that continues to grow each year as millions of Americans and
people from throughout the world visit the Park and experience its unique
geothermal features, wildlife populations, natural vistas, and cultural
resources. Natural resource professionals responsible for managing the Park are
charged with the dual mandate of providing for public enjoyment while ensuring
that resources remain unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. The
success of managers in meeting this challenge is unequivocal as the Park
accommodates approximately three million visitors annually while still managing
nearly 90% 
of the landscape as defacto wilderness. Equally impressive is the
fact that natural processes are allowed to continue exerting their forces on the
landscape and organisms that inhabit the Park, with a full and thriving
complement of species assemblages that existed prior to European settlement.
Despite this record, management of the Park and its natural resources are
continually embroiled in controversy including recent and current debates on
wild fire management, appropriate population levels of bison and elk, wildlife
disease management, management of threatened and endangered species, wolf
reintroduction and its impacts on prey species, exotic species control, and
impacts of winter recreation on wildlife populations and the environment.
Our
vision is to develop our existing work in close collaboration with the
Park, toward the following unifying outcomes of integrated science:
1. Better scientific understanding of the Yellowstone ecosystem as an integration of many processes.
2. Better-informed management integration tools for guiding decision making.
3. Better public communication tools for interpretation the Yellowstone ecosystem.
The focus of our research is to develop a detailed characterization of the landscape in the central portion of Yellowstone Park, understand the role of climatic variation in influencing ecological processes including plant productivity/phenology and snowpack dynamics, and linking climatic variation with both the spatial dynamics and population dynamics of the primary large mammals that inhabit the region--elk, bison, and wolves.
The utility and soundness of our approach to science in Yellowstone can be measured directly by reviewing some of our accomplishments to date. Using consistent and rigorous methodologies we have amassed some of the most extensive databases available for large mammals in the Park. Fundamental to the development of these databases is the principle that the primary foundation for understanding wildlife communities and ecosystem processes is a strong field presence.
Visualizing the Ecological Processes
A principal outcome we propose that exemplifies our vision of integrated science is a computer visualization of the Park ecosystem, showing all the prominent elements of the Park, their dynamics in time, and their interactions in space. This visualization may be produced as a series of 3D animations, or as an interactive tool, where the user may move through a ‘Virtual Park’, changing the climate, management, or animal population parameters, and observing their effects.
The future of this integrated science program for central Yellowstone is dependent on expanding the partnerships and funding base that we have developed over the past 13 years.