12/5/2023 0 Comments Active fire hazard carrot weather![]() While large wildfires have occurred in this fire-adapted ecosystem for the past 10,000 years, usually these fires are quite patchy, with mostly low to medium severity. Additionally, in fall 2017, an extremely high-severity megafire, the Kenow wildfire, burned our study site. These animals will be roaming the prairie in our study site eventually. First, bison were reintroduced just north of our study site (in Banff National Park, Alberta), and south of our study site, in the Badger-Two Medicine and Chief Mountain area of Montana. Some big changes occurred in 2017 on our project. Climate change has increased the severity of wildfires worldwide. Additionally, our study has a climate change component. However, lacking bison and frequent fire, aspen are encroaching on shortgrass prairie. The combination of wolves and fire is leading to aspen rapidly growing above the height that elk can eat them and into the forest canopy. With the return of fire we’re noticing that aspen are sprouting more vigorously and growing faster. We’re also finding that wolves in some places reduce elk numbers to a more sustainable level. This effect is called “the ecology of fear” (Brown et al. This means that elk may not be eating aspen in places where wolves are present, because it is more difficult to escape a wolf in an aspen thicket than on open terrain (Eisenberg et al. ![]() With the return of wolves, we’re noticing changes in elk behavior and density (Smith et al. We also began to realize that fire is as important of an ecological force as wolves. and Canada, we began to conserve wolves and other large carnivores. At the same time that we wiped out wolves, we eliminated fire and bison ( Bison bison).īeginning in the mid-1970s, with the passage of powerful environmental laws in the U.S. Literally eating themselves out of house and home, elk damaged aspen to the point that few saplings survived to grow into mature trees. Burgeoning elk populations ravaged plant communities, including aspen forests (an important elk food). Without wolves preying on them, elk and deer exploded in number. These cascading direct and indirect food web interactions affect songbird and invertebrate species diversity, and are called trophic cascades.īy the 1920s, as was the case in much of North America, European settlers killed wolves to the point of near extinction. Large carnivores, such as wolves, and disturbances, such as fire, have been identified as forces of nature that increase biodiversity, create more resilient ecosystems, and help energy to cycle more vigorously through communities (Eisenberg et al. For nearly one hundred years, ecologists have recognized the powerful link between wolves ( Canis lupus), elk ( Cervus elaphus), aspen ( Populus tremuloides), grass, and fire (Leopold et al., 1947).
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