Climate Reconstruction in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Climate Reconstruction in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

When you think about visiting national parks like Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, usually it’s about where you’re staying and learning a little bit of the history of the area. What usually isn’t thought of, however, is that vast amount of physical phenomena that occur in one of the few intact ecosystems left in the world. In this research paper, I will be conducting a brief analysis of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (commonly referred to as the GYE). In this analysis, I will be utilizing several scholarly journal articles in order to better understand the processes that occur in the GYE and to attempt to discuss possible findings in the change of processes through the area’s history.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a collection of preserved areas within the National Park Service (Department of the Interior) and the United States Forest Service (Department of Agriculture), including Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and Beaverhead-Deer Lodge, Bridger-Teton, Caribou-Targhee, Custer, Gallatin, and Shoshone National Forests, as well as the Wind River Indian Reservation. The GYE is home to three of the major river systems found in the United States: the Missouri/Mississippi, Snake/Columbia, and Green/Colorado rivers. The GYE is typically in a pronounced four-season climate, with significant amounts of precipitation/snowfall and freezing temperatures in the winter months and humid and warm to hot weather accompanied with occasional thunderstorms during the summer months. Another important aspect of the GYE is what lies in the Teton Mountain Range, found just south of Yellowstone National Park. Several mountain glaciers can be found there, inclu...

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Krause, Teresa R., and Cathy Whitlock. “Climate and Vegetation Change during the Late-glacial/early-Holocene Transition Inferred from Multiple Proxy Records from Blacktail Pond, Yellowstone National Park, USA.” Quaternary Research 79.3 (2013): 391-402. Web.

Persico, Lyman, and Grant Meyer. “Holocene Beaver Damming, Fluvial Geomorphology, and Climate in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.” Quaternary Research 71.3 (2009): 340-53. Web.

Whitlock, Cathy, Walter E. Dean, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Lora R. Stevens, Jeffery R. Stone, Mitchell J. Power, Joseph R. Rosenbaum, Kenneth L. Pierce, and Brandi B. Bracht-Fly. “Holocene Seasonal Variability Inferred from Multiple Proxy Records from Crevice Lake, Yellowstone National Park, USA.” Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 331-331 (2012): 90-103. Web.