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Welcome to the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem Circle of
Life.
The Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem is one of my favorite
places in the world.
I was introduced to the area by
my good friend, Alan Tobin
(assumed spelling) back in 1980,
and I've returned to the
ecosystem almost every summer
since then.
For years I struggled, really,
whether to offer this class or
not, primarily because fewer
people going to the area meant
less impact on the ecosystem.
But also, there was a selfish
reason.
Fewer people going to the
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
was good for me because part of
the reason I went out there was
try to get away from people, to
go to remote areas.
But I eventually came to,
really, a different conclusion.
And, you know, I realized -- and
as I looked at my life, human
population had grown from 2.7
billion people in 1954, when I
was born, to the 7 billion
people that are on the planet
now.
And so the ecosystem is
increasingly under pressure from
humanity.
And there's a certain reality,
and it is that to know the
Yellowstone ecosystem is to love
the ecosystem and to want to
protect the ecosystem.
This class, essentially, was
born as a field class back in
1995.
I started with another
instructor here at Palomar
College.
And that was the first year that
wolves were reintroduced to the
Yellowstone ecosystem.
We were fortunate enough to
actually see one that year, and
we've seen them every year
since.
So this class, then, is a
natural progression, an
opportunity to reach a larger
audience, educate the American
people about this ecological
jewel and the risks that
threaten the ecosystem, and
additionally, really to prompt
you to go there.
This -- I'm gonna show you lots
of things in this class, but you
have to see it for yourself to
really appreciate it.
And again, once you do, you will
love it and you will want to
protect it.
So we're fortunate enough here
at Palomar College to actually
have a field laboratory that
goes there, but regardless, you
have to go there to appreciate
the place.
So, at its core, this class is a
biology class, however.
So we will be talking about the
biological processes that relate
to the Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem.
So this includes chemistry,
biochemistry, energetics,
genetics, evolution,
systematics, and ecology.
And we will also consider some
of the management problems
associated with the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem and the
influences on those management
problems, which include a
growing population, local and
state economics, local, state,
and national politics, and
recreational pressures.
So my ultimate goals are, then,
that you will understand the
processes that underlie the
phenomena that you see in the
ecosystem, that you will be able
to identify a number of plants
and animals in the ecosystem,
that you will be able to
recognize the different types of
ecosystems there and also the
transitions between those
ecosystems, that you will be
able to describe the many
management issues unique to the
ecosystem, and the local, state,
and national influences on that
management of the ecosystem.
And finally, as I stated at the
outset, that the familiarity
that you gain with the ecosystem
through the class will instill a
desire to protect the ecosystem.
All right, then, so where is the
Yellowstone ecosystem?
What is the Yellowstone
ecosystem?
The Yellowstone ecosystem is
found in the northwest corner of
Wyoming.
It also involves states -- or
goes into the states of Montana
and Idaho.
And kind of at the center of the
ecosystem is Yellowstone
National Park and to the south,
Grand Teton National Park.
But the national parks are
buffered by some other national
lands of various types.
And so, as you can see here,
that includes national forests.
So there are a number of
national forests, as well as, in
red here, showing us some
various wilderness areas.
And then, as we expand out
beyond that, there's also what
we would call Bureau of Land
Management properties as well.
And that's true in the south as
well, again, so Teton National
Park is buffered by both
national forests and various
wilderness areas as well.
And I'll get a chance, later in
the course, to talk about some
of the differences between these
different types of regulating
agencies and the lands that they
manage.
So, as we look at the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem, it can be
defined in some various ways.
It can be how you want to define
it.
It's somewhere between 5 to 18
million acres.
So that's pretty big, but it
really sounds bigger than it is
when you go there.
Also, as far as ecosystems go,
this is considered a relatively
simple ecosystem.
Yeah, when you look at what
makes up the ecosystem, there
are 67 species of mammals,
including wolverine and lynx,
which are really highly
endangered animals.
There are 322 species of birds,
16 species of fish, 11 of which
are native, 10 species of
reptiles and amphibians, at
least 12,000 species of insects,
and 1,100 native vascular plant
species.
So again, keep in mind this is a
simple ecosystem, yet we still
have this extraordinary
diversity.
And we'll be learning about a
lot of these organisms in the
course of the class.
So, I first want to look at the
national parks, and talk a
little bit about what their
geologic history and also
they're human history, and how
they came to be.
So beginning with Yellowstone
National Park, if we look at
Yellowstone National Park, it's
known for its geology.
And this is certainly not a
geology class, but we will
occasionally be referencing
geology as it relates to the
biology that we observe.
And so in Yellowstone, then, we
will observe a number of
different types of rocks,
sedimentary rock.
This is an area that, at one
time, was under an ancient sea,
so we'll see some evidence of
that.
Igneous rock -- igneous rock is
volcanic rock, and there will be
-- there's tremendous diversity
of igneous rocks in the
Yellowstone ecosystem.
Metamorphic rocks, either
igneous or sedimentary rocks
that have been cooked in various
ways and modified.
We'll also discuss to some
degree the effects of glacial
activity.
And again, if you were to go to
the park, you would see a lot of
evidence of glacial activity in
this area.
And then also, of course,
there's tremendous geothermal
activity in the park, and that's
really what attracts people to
this area, a lot of times, is to
look at that geothermal
activity.
But again, our reference to this
will be primarily as it relates
to biological systems.
So in terms of looking at the
park itself and some of this
geology, a lot of it relates to
the fact that Yellowstone sits
over what we call a "hotspot."
And so in this hotspot, what we
have is magma that is -- a dome
of magma, which basically has
moved up under the Yellowstone
ecosystem.
And again, this is what's
driving a lot of the geothermal
activity that we see there.
Now Yellowstone also sits on,
and part of the park is formed
-- made up of what we call a
"caldera."
And so there have been several
massive explosions, which have
occurred over time here.
And basically, what happens in
these kinds of situation is, as
this magma dome rises, what that
does is push up the crust in
that area.
And, as it turns out, this magma
in the area is under -- or
contains a lot of gasses, and
because of the overlying
sediments, that gas will be
under tremendous pressure.
So as the crust rises up, it
cracks and splits.
That then allows the pressure to
dissipate, and so the gasses
will expand, and that leads to a
massive explosion.
And that's the same kind of
thing that happened in the Mount
St. Helen area.
So in the last 2.1 million
years, there have been three
massive explosions.
And again, when this explosion
occurs, that leaves a crater.
And that crater, then, has been
filled in by various activity.
Some of it's been filled in by
magmatic flows, or flows of
magma and lava -- excuse me --
on the surface.
And then, again, there's been a
lot of erosion and other
activities, which have smoothed
over that scar.
But again, that scar still
exists.
So as we look at the Yellowstone
ecosystem, the most recent of
these explosions was about 650
thousand years ago.
And again, there is a much
larger caldera, which there is
some remnant of, from about 2.1
million years ago.
There's also another caldera a
little bit further to the west
from about 1.3 million years
ago.
So over the last 2.1 million
years, there have been about
three of these large explosions.
They occur about every 650
thousand years or so.
So we're more or less on
schedule, then, to have another
massive explosion.
And again, this is really a
concern because when you look at
the size of these explosions
compared to one that we know in
this country, the Mount St.
Helen's explosion -- when Mount
St. Helen's exploded, only about
point one cubic miles of debris
was generated from that
explosion.
Now, to compare that to the
explosion 640 thousand years
ago, which forms the -- kind of
the current caldera, the most
recent caldera, that unloaded
about 240 cubic miles of debris.
And the one 2.1 million years
ago released about 600 cubic
miles of debris.
So I think you can image that if
there was to be another massive
explosion, it would change life
for probably everybody on earth.
This is a really major, major
kind of problem, potentially, in
the future, but hopefully, not
in the recent future.
All right.
So again, it's this magmatic
dome then, this hotspot which is
responsible for a lot of the
geothermal features, which we do
see in the park, and we'll --
and we see a lot of these when
we go up there.
So these include hot springs.
And some of the hot springs are
just extraordinarily beautiful,
not for just the minerals that
we see in the water, but also
the living things that we find
in the hot springs.
And we'll be talking about that
in future modules, but again, a
number of different types of hot
springs throughout the park.
Also geysers, you know, Old
Faithful is probably the most
famous of the geysers in the
park, but there are others.
And again, they're just
spectacular, you know, water is
released.
It will drain back into the vent
and eventually be spewed again.
Fumerals, which vent steam, and
then also we have mud pots in
the park as well.
And so there is kind of an odor
to Yellowstone, if you will.
And it's, you know, caused by
the sulfurous gasses that
produce hydrogen sulfite
primarily, which has kind of a
rotten egg smell.
But, again, it doesn't permeate
everything, and the view and the
wildlife is well worth that odor
that we occasionally encounter.
So looking at human history of
the park, and human history of
the park then, there's evidence
of human use dating back to 11
to 12 thousand years ago.
And this is when, kind of, the
last of the glaciers receded
from the area.
And use certainly has ebbed and
flowed over time in the park,
having to do with climate.
Most of the use has been summer
use in the park.
There's also, when we look at
how the region was named
Yellowstone.
There's a lot of variations of
this story, but what seems to be
the most reliable is that Native
Americans in the area referred
to the river that runs through
the area as the river of the
yellow rock.
And then as French trappers came
to the area, they kind of
modified that translation to the
river of, or the canyon of, or
the area of the yellow stone.
And then this stuck when that
was translated from the French
trappers into English.
And so again, there was quite a
bit of use of the park.
But it declined a little bit
from about 1400 to the mid-1800s
because there was a little bit
of mini ice age there.
But again, most of the use of
the park has been summer use in
the park.
And so, again, there's quite a
bit of evidence of that.
So again, as we look at the
park, one of the areas where you
really see this yellow stone
appearance is in the Grand
Canyon of the Yellowstone.
And this is a place where we see
a volcanic rock known as
ryolitic rock.
It produces a ryolitic soil, and
that ryolite is kind of
yellowish in appearance.
And so that's what gives the
area its name, we think.
All right, now also, if we look
at, you know, use of the park by
humans, and particularly the
Native Americans, one of the
things that build along the
shores of Lake Yellowstone -- so
here's Lake Yellowstone down
here -- as you travel along Lake
Yellowstone, you'll actually see
evidence of what are called fish
traps there.
And so, anyway, what the Native
Americans did is that when the
water levels were low in the
summer, they would build berms
along the shoreline.
And then what would happen is in
the spring melt; water levels
would rise.
And when the water levels
dropped again in the subsequent
summers that would trap water
here, and that would also leave
fish in there as well.
And so then they could just
literally wade in and collect
any fish that were trapped in
these areas.
So again, you'll see a lot of
evidence of that all along the
shores of Lake Yellowstone,
where there were some shallow
regions there.
There were a number of Native
American tribes that took
advantage of the area, the
Kiowas, Blackfeets, Cayuse,
Coeur d'Alenes, Bannocks, Nez
Perce, Umatilla, Crow, and the
Shoshones.
And the Shoshone, in particular,
there was a group of Shoshone
known as the "Sheep Eaters."
And they were kind of
interesting because they would
actually follow the bighorn
sheep migrations in the park and
were really skilled hunters of
bighorn sheep.
And actually, it's a tribe that
even after use of the horse had
been introduced to many of the
cultures there, that they
actually did not use the horse.
And they actually, like I said,
stayed in mountainous regions
and followed the bighorn sheep.
They were also known for taking
the horns of the bighorn sheep.
They would soak the horns and
then cut off this kind of flat
portion of the horn and make
bows from that.
And so they would trade these
bows with other tribes.
And so these were really
extremely powerful bows.
And there are stories that the
bows were powerful enough to
actually send an arrow all the
way through bison.
So -- anyway, so again, they're
kind of one of the better-known
tribes that lived in the area.
Now, Europeans then came to the
area.
Certainly by the late 1700s, the
area became publicized as these
trappers would go back East, and
one of the more famous members
of this group, then, was John
Coulter.
John Coulter was a member of the
Lewis and Clark expedition.
And as they were returning from
that expedition, he asked for
permission to leave.
He met another trapper who was
moving through the area.
And so Coulter traveled through
the Yellowstone and Teton are
and brought back stories about
the extraordinary sights that he
had seen.
The area gained fame, you know,
certainly through the 1800s, but
it really wasn't until after the
Civil War that there became a
real interest in preserving this
incredible, unique area.
And so there were a number of
expeditions, one by Folsom in
1869, then Washburn, 1870,
Hayden followed in 1871.
And, you know, part of that was
that there was a lot of pictures
that came out of that final
expedition, and also
photographs.
So paintings and photographs
that came out of that last
group.
And so this eventually led,
then, to Congress deciding to
preserve the area.
And so Yellowstone National Park
was established with the
National Park Preservation Act
in 1872.
And so it is the oldest and the
first true national park.
Now, as we look at the Teton
area, the Teton area then is --
Grand Teton National Park is
south of Yellowstone National
Park.
And Grand Teton National Park
really is a very different park
in a lot of ways.
The geology is somewhat
different there.
Also, the -- certainly the human
history is different, and recent
history in terms of when the
park was established and so on.
So as we look at Teton Park,
it's gonna be composed of the
Teton Range.
Also, there's a series of alpine
lakes at its base.
And then also, there's a large
valley to the east, which is
known as the Jackson Hole.
So a hole is a valley that's
surrounded by mountains, and
basically, this whole area is
surrounded by mountains, so this
area is known as the Jackson
Hole.
And the Snake River runs through
Jackson Hole.
So again, we can see the Teton
Range here.
And Grand Teton National Park is
named for the highest peak in
the park, which is the Grand
Teton.
And that is French for "large
breast."
So anyway, Grand Teton National
Park.
Now, as we look at some of the
geology of the area then, again,
it has to do with, you know,
formation of this mountain range
and also the Jackson Hole area
off to the west.
And so when you look at the
range, there's actually a fault,
which runs along the base of the
range.
And it's visible in some places.
And so, what's happening then is
the range has been rising, and
the floor of the valley has been
dropping away.
And so as we consider that,
then, there's basically a fault
line there.
And so again, what's happened is
that the valley has slid down
and dropped down as the mountain
range has increased.
And then, there's also, again,
been a lot of glacial activity
in this area.
And so glaciers have covered
this area, at time, you know,
over a mile thick.
And with that then -- and then
receded.
And what they left behind was a
lot of debris in the valley.
And so, anyway -- and then also
the Snake River has developed
since that time as well.
So there is soil in the valley,
but what's kind of interesting
about it is you look at the
valley, and it looks, you know,
beautiful.
It looks like it should be
really good agricultural area
and so on, but the soil that's
there is really very, very thin.
There's just a few feet of soil
at best.
And as -- after you dig down
through that, you're basically
just looking at glacial rock,
glacial till.
And it's kind of interesting.
So when we look at formation of
Grand Teton National Park,
again, it's a much more recent
history in terms of that park.
So proposals to preserve the
area actually began back in the
1800s, about the time that
Yellowstone was being formed
because it was felt that there
needed to be an expansion of the
Yellowstone area to include the
migration areas, migration
routes, primarily, of the elk
herds that frequented the
southern part of Yellowstone
Park.
And by 1929, then, the Teton
Range and the lakes at the base
of the range had been set aside
as a national monument.
But, you know, people --
enthusiasts of the area, a lot
of them felt that, you know,
that wasn't adequate.
And one of these people was John
D. Rockefeller, Jr. of the
famous Rockefeller family.
And so, he wanted to help
preserve a larger area,
especially the Jackson Hole
area.
Now, the Jackson Hole area was
used primarily by ranchers, and
it was -- there were a lot of
economic interest in that.
And so Rockefeller formed
basically a front, a phony
company to buy up property under
the guise of starting a new
ranching company.
And this was known as the Snake
River Land Company.
And so he began to buy up land
and bought something like 35
thousand acres, I believe, 37
thousand acres over time.
And then he attempted to donate
this to the government.
And believe it or not, this was
a really contentious issue, and
it actually took a long time
before they actually accepted
that donation, and it wasn't
until 1950 that Grand Teton
National Park was actually
formed.
And it included the land that
had been contributed by the
Snake River Land Company as well
as the existing national
monument.
And then in 1972, there was a
memorial parkway, which also was
added to the park system there.
And it's known as the John D.
Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.
And that links Teton Park with
Yellowstone National Park.
So we have a continuum,
essentially, of the national
park system from Teton Park up
through Yellowstone Park.
All right, so what then
constitutes an ecosystem?
So as we look at the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem, what is
an ecosystem?
Well, when you look at an
ecosystem, there's certain
abiotic factors.
And you see, abiotic factors,
then, are non-living components
of an ecosystem.
And abiotic factors would
include atmosphere, which is the
air in an ecosystem.
And so atmosphere can be the air
that we breathe.
It can also be air in water.
It can be air in any form that
we find it.
So again, it could be the air
that we breathe.
It can be air trapped in soil,
and so on.
Now, the hydrosphere would be
water in any of its form that we
happen to find it.
And so, again, that can be, you
know, flowing water or standing
water.
It can be water vapor.
And so we will find water in a
number of different forms.
It could be ice.
So again, hydrosphere would be
water in any of its many forms.
Clouds would be another example.
The lithosphere constitutes the
soil, or rocky portion, of any
ecosystem.
So again, soil, rock, dust in
the air, sediments flowing in
water, any of this would
constitute lithosphere.
And then also another abiotic
factor, which is an important
factor, is energy.
So again, energy in its many
forms, chemical energy, heat
energy, solar energy, and we'll
be talking about those many
forms as we work through the
class.
Additionally, then, we also have
the living components of an
ecosystem.
And so that includes organisms.
And so an organism is the
individual, living thing.
And like organisms in an
ecosystem, so again, could be a
bison.
That would be an organism.
Could be the cowbird, that would
be an organism.
It could be a species of grass.
A population would be a
collection of like organisms.
So we have, in Yellowstone
ecosystems, populations of bison
and elk and all kinds of
different organisms.
But when we talk about a
population, we're talking about
like organisms, similar
organisms.
And then populations, in turn,
form a natural community of
organisms.
So again, a natural community
would be, in this case, we'd be
looking at bison, cowbirds
potentially, grasses, sagebrush,
all interacting with one
another.
That constitutes a natural
community.
And then finally, if we take a
natural community, and conclude
a natural community of organisms
with the physical habitat, that
forms an ecosystem.
So a natural community of
organisms interacting with one
another and their habitat
constitutes an ecosystem.
So when we look at the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem, it's
really a bit of misnomer because
when we're looking at the
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,
it's actually better termed a
landscape.
So a landscape would be a
geographic area composed of a
number of different ecosystems.
And an example of that is if you
were to head out into the Lamar
Valley of the Yellowstone
ecosystem, if we were to take a
drive through that, we would
actually see some different
ecosystem here.
So there's the sagebrush
community, sagebrush ecosystem
here in the foreground.
Up on the hills, we're looking
at lodgepole pine forests.
And lodgepole pine would be a
separate ecosystem.
So the fact is that we have a
blending of different
ecosystems.
We have our coniferous forest
blending into some grasslands,
grasslands through the valley,
and then up behind the camera
here, you'd be back up into
sagebrush community.
So we're really not looking at
an ecosystem when we talk about
the Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem.
It's really better termed a
landscape.
So, unfortunately, the area is
just referred to as the Greater
Yellowstone Ecosystem, but I
should be calling it the Greater
Yellowstone Landscape.
And then if you were to take all
of the ecosystems on the planet,
combine those, we refer to that
as the biosphere.
So the Greater Yellowstone
Landscape is part of the
biosphere on the planet.
So when we consider the
ecosystem, then, and one of the
themes of the course that we'll
come back to periodically, then,
is it's important to understand,
then, that the physical
components of the ecosystem, the
matter, atoms, molecules, and so
on in an ecosystem, they're
gonna cycle in the ecosystem.
And so we're gonna be talking
about food chains.
We're gonna be talking about how
organisms feed on one another
and so on.
And there's also these
geochemical cycles that will
return nutrients to the soil.
And so the atoms and molecules
of an ecosystem, then, get
reused constantly.
And those will recycle in an
ecosystem.
But what doesn't recycle in an
ecosystem, or in this case, our
landscape, is energy.
So energy cannot be recycled in
the same form.
And so this is an idea that I'll
come back to several times as we
work through the class.
So matter recycles; energy flows
through the ecosystem.
But fortunately, we have,
basically, a limitless supply of
energy.
So we will be talking about a
number of different types of
ecosystems.
Just to give you a very brief
overview, we will eventually be
talking about lake ecosystems,
which are called lentic
ecosystems.
We'll be talking about
ecosystems associated with
rivers and streams, which are
lotic ecosystems.
We'll be talking about riparian
ecosystems, those that are
associated with rivers and
streams.
We'll be talking about a number
of terrestrial ecosystems in the
park, and when we talk about
terrestrial ecosystems, we'll be
interested in the influence of
climate.
We're gonna be interested in the
geology of an area, the
geography of an area, the
latitude of an area, the
altitudes of different parts of
the park, how those influence,
then, the producers or plants
that we find in the ecosystem,
which will in turn influence the
type of consumers, or animals,
that we find in the ecosystem.
And also, there are feedback
mechanisms in the ecosystems
that we'll have to consider and
explore down the line as well.
And so there are a number of
biomes, deciduous forests,
broadleaf forests of one type or
another.
There are coniferous forests of
a variety of type -- types,
different types of pine,
lodgepole, spruce, fir.
We'll also be looking at some
types of grasslands, not
necessarily true grasslands, but
some grasslands in the
ecosystem.
Some of them are quite beautiful
with through wildflowers.
Chaparral ecosystems, the big
sagebrush community is the
primary chaparral ecosystem.
And there's no real, true
tundra, but when you get up
above tree line, we do have
tundra-like ecosystems as well.
In addition to that, wetlands.
Some of these wetlands are
seasonal; some are perennial.
So again, around some of the
lakes and streams, we'll find
willow flats, which are examples
of wetlands.
So I've just given you a taste,
really, of where we're headed in
the course then, and I look
forward to telling you more
about this incredible place.
[ Music ]