Teton Alpine Stream Research Is Final UW Harlow Seminar Topic Aug. 8

An update on ongoing work on the Teton Alpine Stream Research (TASR) project will be the focus of the final Harlow Summer Seminar Series at the renovated University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station Thursday, Aug. 8. The facility is located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.

Lusha Tronstad, UW's Invertebrate Zoology Program manager in the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, and Scott Hotaling, a Utah State University watershed sciences assistant professor, will present "The first 10 years of the Teton Alpine Stream Research project: what we've learned and where we're going." The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by a 6:30 p.m. seminar. The events are free and open to the public, although a $10 donation is suggested.

In their research, Tronstad and Hotaling say climate change is dramatically altering mountain ecosystems around the world. In the Teton Range, a salient impact of these changes is the decline of the region's cryosphere -- the portion of the landscape where water exists in frozen form. This includes recession of glaciers and perennial snowfields as well as losses of seasonal snowpack.

"However, another component of the mountain cryosphere -- rock glaciers -- has received considerably less scientific attention," the presenters say.

Rock glaciers are large masses of debris-covered ice that move and flow down the landscape similarly to the widely known "surface" glaciers. Due to their debris cover, rock glaciers are predicted to exist on the landscape longer than surface ice that is more directly exposed to solar radiation and warming air temperatures.

Tronstad and Hotaling created the TASR project in 2015 to understand how climate-induced alterations to the Teton cryosphere will affect alpine stream biodiversity. The study's targeted streams equally represent the three major stream sources in the Teton Range: glaciers, rock glaciers and snowfields. The researchers already have observed a host of changes to the physical and biological structure of the Teton Range's alpine streams during their 10-year study.

"Our results highlight the power of simple long-term monitoring for quantifying climate change impacts on mountain ecosystems and the potential for rock glaciers to act as key climate refugia for biodiversity into the future," Tronstad and Hotaling say.

Tronstad studies invertebrates of management and conservation concern, and she is an expert on aquatic invertebrates, mollusks and pollinators. She is responsible for developing and maintaining data on the distribution, natural history, conservation status and habitat requirements of rare invertebrate species in Wyoming.

Hotaling takes an integrative approach to the study of high alpine watersheds by linking ecology, physical science and genetics to understand the past, present and future of these threatened ecosystems.

About the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Station

The research station, a cooperative effort between UW and the NPS for the past 71 years, provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from around the world to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area. The research station is located on the AMK Ranch historic district on a peninsula extending into Jackson Lake near Leeks Marina.

About the Harlow Summer Seminar Series

Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow program is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant center for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months.