Monitoring Natural Resources in Denali National Park and Preserve

Buses with visitors view Denali peak.
Visitors enjoy a view of Mt. McKinley.

NPS/Jacob W. Frank

Denali National Park and Preserve covers 2.4 million hectares (6 million acres), most of it only accessible by foot, dogsled, or aircraft. One road provides vehicular access, mainly during the summer season. The landscape is not static, as landslides, braided rivers of glacial melt, and moving glaciers attest. There are also human impacts on the land, such as changes in air quality (airborne contaminants) and climate.

Near the geographic center of Alaska, the park surrounds Mt. McKinley (formerly Denali), which hinges the great arc of the Alaska Range mountains. The Alaska Range is a barrier to air movements and precipitation from maritime influences to the south, thus creating a transitional climate. Areas on the south side of the range are significantly wetter, with twice the precipitation of the north side. Temperatures on the south side of the range have less variation and tend to be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, due to more maritime influences. North of the Alaska Range, a continental climate prevails.

An Arctic ground squirrel enjoys Denali's tundra.
An Arctic ground squirrel pops up on Denali's tundra.

NPS/Tim Rains

Denali’s vegetation is characteristic of subarctic areas where the growing season is less than 100 days and soils are nutrient-poor. The taiga, or boreal forest, is found at the lowest elevations and consists of black spruce with stands of white spruce, paper birch, and aspen on better-drained sites. Understory vegetation consists of low shrubs, herbs, mosses, and lichens. Tree line is encountered at nearly 800 m (2,600 ft.) and forests give way to shrublands consisting of moist tundra plants such as dwarf birch, willows, and sedges. Above 1,000 m (3,400 ft.), shrubland is replaced by alpine tundra.

A Dall's sheep ram relaxes on a Denali hillside.
A Dall's sheep ram relaxes on a hillside in Denali. Denali was protected in the early years as a game refuge for Dall's sheep and other species.

NPS/Jacob W. Frank

Denali was created originally (as Mt. McKinley National Park) in 1917, mainly because of its wildlife resources. In the early years, scientific interest in Denali centered on the large mammals because the park’s status as a game refuge offered scientists the unique opportunity to study the life histories of animal populations over a significantly large range of the subarctic. Denali is well known for its diversity of wildlife. Based on current information, there are ten species of fish, one amphibian, 37 species of mammals, and 167 species of birds known in the park. There are an unknown number of species of invertebrates.

Denali is a designated as an International Biosphere Reserve under the United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization Man and the Biosphere Program. The purposes of biosphere reserves are to assure worldwide protected areas where long-term ecological research will be possible on natural processes to compare with human altered areas and to assure protection of genetic diversity.

What's Happening in Denali National Park and Preserve

Showing results 1-10 of 46

  • Why is Mount McKinley so big?

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
    • Offices: Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
    A scientist on a weather station.

    Read a summary and link to a paper that describes the conditions that create Denali's height, in: Matmon, A., P. Haeussler, and M. G. Loso. 2024. Anomalously high relief on Denali, Alaska, caused by tectonic, lithologic, and climatic drivers. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 646: 118999.

  • Cohesion among canids: Insights into social behavior

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve, Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve
    • Offices: Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
    Wolves captured on a wildlife camera.

    Read the abstract and get the link to a study that looks at social behavior among canids worldwide: Benson, J., D. Keiter, P. Mahoney, B. Allen, L. Allen, B. L. Borg,… K. Joly, … M. Sorum, et al. 2024. Intrinsic and environmental drivers of pairwise cohesion in wild Canis social groups. Ecology: e4492.

  • Diverse landscape features helped buffer the effects of a winter storm for wildlife

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
    • Offices: Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
    A ledge on a hillside creates a storm break for wildlife.

    Read a summary and get a link to a published paper on how caribou and wolves respond to severe winter storms and how diverse landscape features provided some protection: Prugh, L. R., J. D. Lundquist, B. K. Sullender, C. X. Cunningham, J. Dechow, B. L. Borg, P. J. Sousanes, S. Stehn, and M. T. Furand. 2024. Landscape heterogeneity buffers the impact of an extreme weather event on wildlife. Communications Biology 7(1515).

  • Denali National Park & Preserve

    What determines the likelihood of seeing wolves in Denali?

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
    A tour bus and wolf

    Read a summary and link to a paper that describes the factors related to wolf sightings in Denali: Borg, B. L., S. M. Arthur, J. A. Falke, and L. R. Prugh. 2021. Determinants of gray wolf (Canis lupus) sightings in Denali National Park. Arctic 74(1): 51-66.

  • Bird responses to subarctic tree and shrub expansion

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
    • Offices: Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
    A bird sits on a rock.

    Read the abstract and get the link to an article about bird population changes in the subarctic as treeline and shrubline shift: Mizel, J. D., J. H. Schmidt, C. A. Roland, and C. L. McIntyre. 2023. Tree and shrub expansion at treeline drive contrasting responses in a subarctic passerine community. Journal of Animal Ecology 92(6): 1256-1266.

  • Denali National Park & Preserve

    How much noise is too much?

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve
    Three people sit on a bench in Denali filling out a survey.

    Read a summary and link to the full published article on noise in: Ferguson, L. A., P. Newman, M. F. McKenna, D. H. Betchkal, Z. D. Miller, R. Keller, K. M. Fristrup, and B. D. Taff. 2023. How much noise is too much? Methods for identifying thresholds for soundscape quality and ecosystem services. Applied Acoustics 209: 109388.

  • Consider the source: How to build better ecological models

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve, Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve
    A researcher walks along a steep talus slope.

    Read the abstract and get the link to a peer-reviewed article on the use of climate models in ecological modeling: Sardoti, G., S. A. McAfee, E. F. Nicklen, P. J. Sousanes, and C. A. Roland. 2020. Evaluating multiple historical climate products in ecological models under current and projected temperatures. Ecological Applications 0(0): e2240.

  • Landslide Risks Along Park Roads Increase in a Warming Climate

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve, Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve, Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve
    A grade displacement on park road.

    Read the abstract and get the link to an article on how climate change is impacting park roads in Alaska: Lader, R., P. Sousanes, U. S. Bhatt, J. E. Walsh, and P. A. Bieniek. 2023. Climate indicators of landslide risks on Alaska national park road corridors. Atmosphere 14(1): 34.

  • How vegetation has changed along subarctic river floodplains

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve, Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve, Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve
    Comparison imagery of riparian area.

    Read the abstract and get the link to an article about how subarctic floodplain vegetation cover has changed over time: Frost, G. V., C. A. Roland, and J. H. Schmidt. 2023. Dynamic disequilibrium: Recent widespread increases in vegetation cover on subarctic floodplains of Interior Alaska. Ecosphere 14(1): e4344.

  • Lake Area Change in Interior Alaska Parklands

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Denali National Park & Preserve, Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve, Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve
    A drying lake from above.

    Read the abstract and link to the paper published in PLOS Climate on the changing lakes in Interior Alaska. Rupp, D. L. and A. S. Larsen. 2022. Surface water area in a changing climate: Differential responses of Alaska's subarctic lakes. PLOS Climate 1(6): e0000036.

Tags: science articles science articles central alaska network dena
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Last updated: February 26, 2025

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