A temperate forest and grassland ecosystem in the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States, centered on Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, and sitting atop one of the largest volcanic systems on Earth, whose underlying heat powers the ecosystem's geysers and hot springs. Yellowstone is one of the most complete large temperate ecosystems remaining in the continental United States, holding nearly all of the large mammal species present at the time of European settlement, and it is the site of one of conservation's best-known case studies: the reintroduction of the gray wolf in 1995, after the species had been eliminated from the park for seventy years, which reduced overgrazing by elk and allowed streamside vegetation, beaver and songbirds to recover across the following decades.
Facts
Classification
Biogeographic Realm Protected Status Area (sq km) Connections
Demonstrates
NPS Yellowstone documents beaver ponds and flooding creating conditions favorable to willow and aspen over the previous vegetation, a landscape-scale successional shift tied directly to the park's beaver colony history.
Source Beaver (Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service)
Why this is disputed. The popular narrative credits 1995 wolf reintroduction with a cascading recovery of aspen, willow and beaver, but ecologists caution the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is too open and complex to serve as a clean textbook example, and some changes (creek incision blocking willow recovery) have not reversed even where grazing pressure has.
Source Trophic Cascade (Wikipedia)
Hosts
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Beaver (Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service)
Source World Wildlife Fund
Source World Wildlife Fund
In Biome
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.britannica.com/place/Yellowstone-National-Park, park dimensions paragraph
The park, which forms a squarelike rectangle with an irregular eastern side, is 63 miles (101 km) from north to south and 54 miles (87 km) from east to west at its widest point and covers an area of 3,472 square miles (8,992 square km).
- Biogeographic realm: nearctic (derived from location stated in entity description)
Protected status (stated plainly in the entity own recorded description)
A temperate forest and grassland ecosystem in the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States, centered on Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, and sitting atop one of the largest volcanic systems on Earth, whose underlying heat powers the ecosystem's geysers and hot springs.
- In Biome: Temperate Forest
- Hosts: American Bison
View the Source Beaver (Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service)
Trophic Cascade (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDemonstrates: Trophic CascadeQuote, Demonstrates: Trophic Cascade
In reality, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is too complex to serve as an example of a straightforward trophic cascade.
World Wildlife Fund
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Demonstrates: Trophic Cascade
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is too complex and too open to outside influences to serve as a clean example of a straightforward trophic cascade; some changes attributed to wolves, such as blocked willow recovery from creek incision, have not reversed even where elk browsing pressure has eased.
A dissenting reading, from a reviewerTrophic Cascade (Wikipedia), Wikipedia
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.