Changes in Yellowstone

Global warming and climate changing are making the greatest impacts at this time at the places in the world closer to the poles, highest elevations, in the oceans, and soon at coastal areas. At Yellowstone, change is also underway as the growing season has lengthened by three weeks in around the last dozen years, resulting in greater success by invasive species such as Canada Thistle. This has resulted in a greater presense in the region by lower level fauna like ground gophers, which is in turn becoming a greater part of the diet by one of the greatest animals in this ecosystem, bears. Change of this magnitude will only to continue to occur and rapidly as Yellowstone is in some ways one great natural laboratory for climate change and its micro impacts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18griz.html?ref=science

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2416

http://www.azcentral.com/news/green/articles/0319warmspring19-on.html

*****