Harlow Seminar - August 8, 2024, Lusha Tronstad and Scott Hotaling

The first 10 years of the Teton Alpine Stream Research project: What we’ve learned and where we’re going
Speakers: Lusha Tronstad, University of Wyoming; and Scott Hotaling, Utah State University
Time: Thursday, August 8, 5:30pm MT, talk begins at 6:30pm MT
Location: UW-NPS Research Station at the AMK Ranch, in the Berol Lodge
Abstract
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 snowfield as well as losses of seasonal snowpack. However, another component of the mountain cryosphere-rock glaciers-has received considerably less scientific attention. Rock glaciers are larges 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. In 2015, we created the Teton Alpine Stream Research (TASR) project to understand how climate-induced alterations to the Teton cryosphere will impact alpine stream biodiversity. Each August, we collect the same suite of abiotic (e.g., temperature) and biotic (e.g., macroinvertebrate community structure) data for 12 streams in the high Teton Range. Our study streams equally represent the three major stream sources in the Teton Range: glaciers, rock glaciers, and snowfields. Now in our 10th year of the project, we’re already observed a host of changes to the physical and biological structure of alpine streams in the Teton Range. 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.
Speaker Bios
Lusha Tronstad is the invertebrate zoologist at the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, University of Wyoming. She studies invertebrates of management and conservation concern, and is an expert on aquatic invertebrates, mollusks and pollinators. Born and raised in the Rocky Mountains, Lusha enjoys working and recreating in National Parks and Wyoming to learn more about the species and the ecosystems they inhabit.
Scott Hotaling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University. He 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. Along with Lusha Tronstad, they have been leading the Teton Alpine Stream Research project in the Teton Range since 2015.