Thursday, December 4, 2014



Temperate Forests in Yosemite National Park

"Swinging Bridge", Yosemite Valley
Milky Way over Yosemite Valley
  Intro
Yosemite Fall 2
        Yosemite is located in the Eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa, and Madera County in the central eastern area of California, and is known for its large cliffs, waterfalls and clear streams. In this project, we will mainly focus on the Temperate Forest in Yosemite.
        Yosemite is found in the vast area of Temperate Deciduous Forests in the West Coast of the Unities States. The expansive park’s 747,956 acres or 1,190 square miles are home to hundreds of wildlife species and thousands of Yosemite plants. The park is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and contains thousands of lakes and ponds, 1,600 miles (2,600 km) of streams, 800 miles (1,300 km) of hiking trails, and 350 miles (560 km) of roads.

 Where is it?
Map of Yosemite
biome in yosemite.pngThe Scale of Temperate Forests in Yosemite
      Our topic is the temperate forest in Yosemite, so our research is based on local scale. As the maps indicated below, the light green areas in the world map are occupied by temperate forests. Among these areas, our group focuses on the temperate forests in Yosemite, which is located in the central eastern part of California.

world biome.png

What did this ecosystem historically look like?
How Yosemite Was Formed 1           How Yosemite Was Formed 2
 Even though the Yosemite National Park is only 100+ years old, the history of this area could date back to centuries ago. Numerous forces contoured and fashioned the distinguished landscape of Yosemite. Geological forces formed the mountains through compression and lift; glaciation cracked the rocks and the melt of ice fields formed streams, rivers, and waterfalls. Trees were vastly found in Yosemite area.

Yosemite-falls-was-booming.jpg
"Yosemite Falls was Booming" Yosemite Falls in the Past
  Non-Indian settlers were the first ones to occur in this ecosystem prior to 1851. The park had been designated to be a protected area ever since Abraham Lincoln from 1864. In 1889, John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson lobbied for “the need for legislation to designate the land for a national park”.

"Yosemite Fall",Yosemite Fall in the Present
      Though there was not much significant history about the entire temperate forests in Yosemite, we can take a peek into the history through the status of the world-famous giant Sequoia here.
Wawona Tree
     Above was the picture of a giant Sequoia in historic Wawona area. The Scribner Brothers built this tunnel in 1881 primarily for stagecoaches but later for tourists, yet it fell in 1969. Now Yosemite National Park has three Sequoia groves of about 450 large trees.

Human Impacts on Yosemite’s Temperate Forests
Negative Impacts
Water in Trails
      In 1980, plans for reducing human impact on the park were released and led by the National Park Service. However, before 1980, historical human impacts had already generated some negative influence on the Temperate Forests in Yosemite, especially the decrease in large-diameter trees and non-native species invasion.
Fire Damaged Big Tree
      To start with, scientists have observed a significant decrease in large-diameter tree density, especially during the 20th century, in Yosemite. This long-term change in forest structure is probably caused by climate change, specifically global warming, which has a strong causation relationship with human activities. “Warmer conditions increase the length of the summer dry season and decrease the snowpack that provides much of the water for the growing season. A longer summer dry season can also reduce tree growth and vigor, and can reduce trees’ ability to resist insects and pathogens,” said USGS scientist emeritus Jan van Wagtendonk. Although the survey conducted by U.S. Geological Survey and University of Washington scientists did not investigate or identify the causes of the decline, climate change should be considered as a likely contributor and should be taken into serious consideration. The reason why decrease in large-diameter trees is a concern for Yosemite’s Forests is that changes in forest structure led to changes in trophic relationships, which will then have strong impacts on the composition of vegetation and animals communities. 

To support this assessment, there is a comparison in the forests trees composition between the 1930s and the 1990s illustrated by the table below. As indicated in the table, the density of trees with smaller diameters has increased, while the density of trees with larger diameters has decreased.
table tree.png
Besides the decrease in large-diameter trees, another major impact caused by historical human activities is non-native species invasion. By the late 19th century, a lot of non-native animals and diseases had been introduced. For example, white pine blister rust, a fungal disease reached Yosemite in the 1920s, had infected many sugar pine trees. This issue continued to modern days, since human use in Yosemite’s Forests provide chances for spreading non-native via human and vehicle vectors and for potentially dispersing seeds by foot into remote areas. According to researches, scientists noticed that the South Entrance and the Valley, which receive the majority of the park’s visitors, have experience more frequent non-native species. Fortunately, current park management has many measures and regulations implemented to monitor and control non-native species.

      In addition, there are a number of minor negative impacts brought by human activities, especially visitation and recreational activities, in this ecosystem: changes in the natural soundscape, etc. The presence of human have in some degree disrupt the natural settings of the Temperate Forests, and may affect plants and animals by artificial lighting and sounds.

Positive Impacts
In general, the National Park Service team at Yosemite has put in a lot of planning efforts and processes to preserve the ecosystem of Yosemite and to minimize the impacts of human activities on Yosemite.
Yosemite Tunnel View
Vernal Fall 2
      Yosemite scientists aim to restore the park’s historical scenic vistas using sound, cultural and ecological practices and processes. They have carried out a multi-year project to identify the historical and current park vistas using previous vista studies, historical records, GIS data, and site visits.
      The Fire Management Program designed and implemented by the National Park Service helps protect life, property and natural resources of Yosemite. On one hand, suppression of destructive fire is carried out. On the other hand, the managers also use tools to mimic fire’s natural function in the ecosystem.

Benefits Gained from the Temperate Forests in Yosemite
      Temperate Forests in Yosemite first provides human with enjoyment. People can do sightseeing, camping, and various recreational activities in this area, and fully appreciate the beauty of nature. 
Lower Yosemite Falls
More importantly, this large area of Temperate Forests has a lot of other long term benefits in human life not only in the local scale, but also in regional and global scale. Forests stabilize the climate in general; purify air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen; and provide us with a variety of medicine materials, and natural resources.
Upper Yosemite Fall

Are there any protected areas in Yosemite?
Yosemite National Park 1
  As mentioned in the beginning, the entire park has been designated as a protected area since 19th century. Before its protection under the National Park Service, Yosemite was originally taken care by the “Buffalo Soldiers”, the U.S. Army's 24th Mounted Infantry and the 9th Cavalry. In the 21st century, due to its distinguished universal value, Yosemite is now a World Heritage Site.

How is the preservation status here?
Vernal Fall
     According to the official news from the National Park Service, Yosemite National Park has been selected as the recipient of the “2014 Preservation Design Award in recognition of the publication of A Sense of Place: Design Guidelines for Yosemite National Park.” The award is given to Yosemite with regards to the excellent historic preservation and sustainability of the park.

Yosemite National Park
      Even Yosemite is doing a good job, the National Park Service reported two of the biggest challenges of Yosemite: the air pollution in the park and funding shortfall for management. Yosemite is doing well in the first one, but there are emerging problems in the second.
"Ozone at Yosemite National Park", Yosemite National Park: Air Quality 10-day Charts

What is likely to happen in the future to that ecosystem?
      It is most likely that Yosemite will have less people congestion along with a more limited selection of activities in Yosemite. The ecosystem will support less tourism activities such as ice skating, swimming, and biking. The decrease in activities will eventually follow up with the decrease in visitors. This is all in efforts of trying to preserve the park more and trying to restore the park more. With the recent efforts to limit such activity, the conservation methods will hopefully work and the environment will be restored from the damages it faced with human activities.
Winter Yosemite
     After the fire in Yosemite on August 2013, most ecologists predicted the forest layout to change and for fast-growing shrubs to fill in the burnt forest in Yosemite. These fast-growing shrubs are more likely to burn more frequently reducing the risk for the accumulation of dead woods and a big fire just like the one in 2013. Hopefully this means that, disregarding the places in the forest badly burned by the intense fire, the shrubs will return Yosemite back to the past-like tendencies of having frequent fires and depending on them for processes like seeds opening and etc.
Rim Fire
      Another future prospect of Yosemite is the effect done by climate change and global warming. Due to global warming, the snow packs in Yosemite will be thinner and thinner causing a major water loss in the entire park. The waterfalls will dry up quicker and quicker as the global warming problem gets worse. Along with the water supply, pine and fir trees will die much more quickly than now. Another major impact global warming can have is the migration of mammals within the park. Due to the changing temperature, they will change which elevation to live in. This change will destroy natural habitats and will force a disruption in the ecosystem.

What can be done to maintain balance between people and the ecosystem?
Yosemite National Park 2
      One of the possible solutions to maintain balance between people and the ecosystem is through the Merced River Plan. This plan is an outline of all the changes that the park can go through to limit activities that can be done in Yosemite in order to preserve more of nature. Based on recent articles, a majority of the environmental degradation was result from tourism, whether it was pollution, road kills, or destruction of natural habitats. The prospective changes of activities are getting rid of activities such as bike rentals, horseback riding, swimming pools, and etc. Some controversies still rest on what activities should be limited and to what extent things should be limited.
Merced River
Other possibilities could be to increase the amount of shuttles provided by the National Park. Since these shuttles use much cleaner energy, having more of them and restricting car usage more would solve the pollution problem a lot better. People consider the accessibility of these shuttles when considering whether they should use shuttles or their own vehicles but creating more of these shuttles would reduce the use of personal vehicles. In correlation with increasing the number of shuttles, bike rentals should be encouraged rather than discouraged. Although it does attract tourists and it is not necessary in admiring the natural beauty of Yosemite, it does reduce the usage of cars and it gives people the alternative methods of transportation that doesn’t pollute the environment.
Stars
Another possibility is to educate the people of the damages being done. They could put up signs that warn them that prevent people from doing activities that could interfere with the preservation of the forest. They could also include in the map of the park the different damages that could be done. They could also inform children about the damages so that future conservation is guaranteed as well. Even on the shuttles, they could put up more posters to educate the people. Although not everyone cares enough to act upon it, it will make a difference to those people who truly appreciate the beauty of Yosemite.

Half Dome

Reflection 
Nevada Fall
            Our group chose Yosemite because of what Dr. Gillespie said in lecture one day. We will only truly begin to care about conservation of a location only after visiting it. Yosemite is a national park that all three of us have recently visited and noticed a great difference in. Over the summer, the drought was so severe and the water shortage so critical that the falls produced minimal waters and the park that looked so green and full of life in pictures changed so that there was less water and less green. Through the project, we were able to use our own pictures and knowledge obtained through the trips that we took. This project not only helps us to connect what we learnt with what we experienced, it also inspires us to think about future.


 Bibliography

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