Long-term monitoring in parks provides us with insights and information that can be acted on by park managers. Here are some of the projects and stories that illustrate what we are learning about climate change and park resources.
Monitoring & Climate Change
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Marine HeatwavesWhen a massive seabird die-off coincided with an extreme marine heatwave, we knew the ocean ecosystem had dramatically changed.
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Clear WatersDespite their protection in parks, high alpine lakes are sensitive to changes in the environment.
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An Ocean on the EdgeA multi-agency rocky intertidal monitoring network tracks the many threats to the Pacific coast.
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Vital Signs & Climate ChangeMonitoring in an Uncertain FutureDive into a collection of stories about how six San Francisco area vital signs are being impacted by climate change.
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Alaska Park ScienceReckoning with a Warming ClimateThis collection of articles provides a glimpse of the science related to climate change in the high-latitude parks of Alaska.
Stories of Climate Change from Monitoring Networks
Showing results 1-10 of 88
- Locations: Yosemite National Park
- Offices: Climate Change Response Program, Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, North Coast and Cascades Inventory & Monitoring Network
Existing tools to identify and protect areas where the climate is changing more slowly may help preserve resources into an uncertain future.
- Offices: Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network, Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
Read the abstract and get the link to an article published in Environmental Research Letters that connects vegetation shift to warming Arctic and Boreal soils under vegetation. Kropp, H., M. M. Loranty, S. M. Natali, A. L. Kholodov, A. V. Rocha, … J. A. O’Donnell … et al. 2020. Shallow soils are warmer under trees and tall shrubs across Arctic and Boreal ecosystems. Environmental Research Letters.
- Offices: Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network, Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network
Read the abstract and link to a paper that describes increasing temperatures and their effects on permafrost in northern parks: Swanson, D. K., P. J. Sousanes, and K. Hill. 2021. Increased mean annual temperatures in 2014-2019 indicate permafrost thaw in Alaskan national parks. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 53(1): 1-19.
- Locations: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore
- Offices: San Francisco Bay Area Inventory & Monitoring Network
Limantour Beach is wide. Bookended by ocean on one side and grassy dunes on the other, its sandy expanse provides a habitat for many organisms that rely on the rich ecosystem between land and sea. The western snowy plover, a small brown and white shorebird, is one species that finds refuge in the sand. Over time, human activity and development have degraded many beaches like Limantour, and biologists have seen those impacts through the eyes of the snowy plovers.
- Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network
The role of old carbon in aquatic food webs
- Offices: Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network
Read a summary and get the link to this article that looks at the use of old carbon in Arctic fish food webs and potential impacts of climate change: Stanek, A.E., Carey, M.P., O'Donnell, J.A., Laske, S.M., Xu, X., Dunton, K.H., von Biela, V.R. 2024. Arctic fishes reveal a gradient in radiocarbon content and use. Limnology and Oceanography Letters.
- Locations: Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, more »
- Offices: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory & Monitoring Network
Good, clean water is essential for healthy ecosystems--for people, vegetation, and animals--making it one of the most important resources in the semi-arid west. The Northern Colorado Plateau Network and its partners monitor water quality in 8 national parks in Utah and Colorado to help scientists and managers conserve these resources. This article summarizes 2019-2022 water quality data and how they compare to state standards.
- Locations: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, Noatak National Preserve
- Offices: Arctic Inventory & Monitoring Network
Read a summary and get the link to a published paper that describes how caribou decide where to spend the winter based on previous experience. Gurarie, E., C. Beaupré, O. Couriot, M. D. Cameron, W. F. Fagan, and K. Joly. 2024. Evidence for an adaptive, large-scale range shift in a long-distance terrestrial migrant. Global Change Biology 30 (11): e17589.
- Locations: Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park
- Offices: North Coast and Cascades Inventory & Monitoring Network, North Coast and Cascades Research Learning Center
MARCH 2024 – Even national parks transform over time—sometimes in dramatic ways! Explore a new visual tour through 30 years of data from the NCCN’s landscape change monitoring program, which uses satellite remote sensing to track disturbances in Olympic, Mount Rainier, and the North Cascades. This analysis also offers clues to how climate change may be altering disturbance patterns in wilderness areas across the Pacific Northwest.
- Locations: Mount Rainier National Park
- Offices: North Coast and Cascades Inventory & Monitoring Network, North Coast and Cascades Research Learning Center
AUGUST 2022 – Mount Rainier’s subalpine meadows are a glimmering kaleidoscope of flora, from the showy to the understated. This strikingly beautiful diversity is also a key to surviving the harsh reality of life in the narrow belt above where the trees end and below where the glaciers begin. To understand the impact of climate change on these interconnected communities, researchers carry out long-term monitoring on subalpine vegetation.
- Locations: Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park
- Offices: North Coast and Cascades Inventory & Monitoring Network, North Coast and Cascades Research Learning Center
JANUARY 2023 – Pacific Northwest forests are vital living systems, cycling huge quantities of carbon and nutrients, filtering pollutants from waterways, and serving as a living bulwark against climate change. However, forests worldwide are threatened by increasing warming and drought, leading to tree die-offs. A new study asks the question: Is this pattern playing out in the mature and old-growth forests of western Washington?
Last updated: March 4, 2024