The world's first national park, Yellowstone is a symbol of nature's enduring majesty and the paradigm of protected areas across the globe. But Yellowstone is constantly changing. How we understand and respond to events that are putting species under stress, say the authors of Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition, will determine the future of ecosystems that were millions of years in the making. With a foreword by the renowned naturalist E. O. Wilson, this is the most comprehensive survey of research on North America's flagship national park available today. Marshaling the expertise of over thirty contributors, Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition examines the diverse changes to the park's ecology in recent decades.
Since its creation in the 1870s, the priorities governing Yellowstone have evolved, from intensive management designed to protect and propagate depleted large-bodied mammals to an approach focused on restoration and preservation of ecological processes. Recognizing the importance of natural occurrences such as fires and predation, this more ecologically informed oversight has achieved notable successes, including the recovery of threatened native species of wolves, bald eagles, and grizzly bears. Nevertheless, these experts detect worrying signs of a system under strain. They identify three overriding stressors: invasive species, private-sector development of unprotected lands, and a warming climate. Their concluding recommendations will shape the twenty-first-century discussion over how to confront these challenges, not only in American parks but for conservation areas worldwide. Highly readable and fully illustrated, Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition will be welcomed by ecologists and nature enthusiasts alike.
Foreword [Edward O. Wilson]
Background and Concepts
1. Ecological Process Management [P.J. White, Robert A. Garrott, and Glenn E. Plumb]
2. Understanding the Past: The History of Wildlife and Resource Management in the Greater Yellowstone Area [S. Thomas Olliff, Paul Schullery, Glenn E. Plumb, and Lee H. Whittlesey]
3. Scale and Perception in Resource Management: Integrating Scientific Knowledge [Matthew S. Becker, Robert A. Garrott, and P.J. White]
Population Dynamics and Interactions among Species
4. Population Dynamics: Influence of Resources and Other Factors on Animal Density [P.J. White and Kerry A. Gunther]
5. Predation: Wolf Restoration and the Transition of Yellowstone Elk [P.J. White and Robert A. Garrott]
6. Competition and Symbiosis: The Indirect Effects of Predation [Robert A. Garrott, Daniel R. Stahler, and P.J. White]
7. Omnivory and the Terrestrial Food Web: Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Diets [Charles C. Schwartz, Mark A. Haroldson, Kerry A. Gunther, and Charles T. Robbins]
Communities and Landscape-Scale Processes
8. Natural Disturbance Dynamics: Shaping the Yellowstone Landscape [David B. McWethy, Wyatt F. Cross, Colden V. Baxter, Cathy Whitlock, and Robert E. Gresswell]
9. Climate and Vegetation Phenology: Predicting the Effects of Warming Temperatures [Christopher C. Wilmers, Karthik Ram, Fred G.R. Watson, P.J. White, Douglas W. Smith, and Taal Levi]
10. Migration and Dispersal: Key Processes for Conserving National Parks [P.J. White, Glenn E. Plumb, Rick L. Wallen, and Lisa M. Baril]
11. Have Wolves Restored Riparian Willows in Northern Yellowstone? [N. Thompson Hobbs and David J. Cooper]
12. Assessing the Effects of Climate Change and Wolf Restoration on Grassland Processes [Douglas A. Frank, Rick L. Wallen, and P.J. White]
Invasive, Non-Native Species
13. Altered Processes and the Demise of Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout in Yellowstone Lake [Robert E. Gresswell and Lusha M. Tronstad]
14. Balancing Bison Conservation and Risk Management of the Non-Native Disease Brucellosis [John J. Treanor, P.J. White, and Rick L. Wallen]
15. Exotic Fungus Acts with Natural Disturbance Agents to Alter Whitebark Pine Communities [S. Thomas Olliff, Roy A. Renkin, Daniel P. Reinhart, Kristin L. Legg, and Emily M. Wellington]
Conclusion
16. The Future of Ecological Process Management [P.J. White, Robert A. Garrott, and Glenn E. Plumb]
Reference List
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index
P. J. White is Chief of Wildlife and Aquatic Resources at Yellowstone National Park for the U.S. National Park Service.
Robert A. Garrott is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Fish & Wildlife Ecology and Management Program at Montana State University, Bozeman.
Glenn E. Plumb is Chief Wildlife Biologist in the Biological Resource Management Division of the U.S. National Park Service.
Edward O. Wilson was Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
"This book summarizes a massive quantity of ecological research in the longest-running natural management experiment in American history, Yellowstone National Park."
– L. Leann Kanda, Choice