Project -- Glacier National Park
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Global Change Research at Glacier National Park

Cooperative research between the University of Montana, the National Forest Service, and the National Park Service is being conducted at Glacier National Park to assess the effects of global climate change on:

water resources and aquatic ecosystems,
forest vegetation patterns,
fire frequency, and
tree-line migration.

Stream gauge, weather, snow, and forest and field data are being accumulated for selected sites within the Lake McDonald and St. Mary's watersheds. This data, coupled with satellite and elevation information will be used to run computer models to assess forest ecosystem production and change under different climate scenarios. These computer model simulations will be used to help park managers predict how forests and meadows of the parks will look given the expected trend in climate change. This process will also help estimate which areas in the park will become more susceptible to fire and which communities, such as alpine and stream bottoms, may become rare and threatened under a warmer, future climate.

Funding: U.S. National Park Service, National Biological Survey

Lake McDonald Watershed Study Area

Landsat TM Scene of the watershed. Green colored areas are forest and other vegetation; magenta are bare ground areas; and cyan areas are glaciers or active snow fields. Large white letters are intensive study sites. Click on these to view graphs of modeled and measured stem growth.