Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

She was gasping for air but the ashes and black smoke burned her throat. She heard people yelling “Get down! You can get air” but she was focused on getting out of the smoldering building. When she exits she struggles to see, the soot and smoke are burning her eyes. When she finally gets them open she can’t believe what she sees. Fire has been used for years for many purposes, to burn trash, to rid of unwanted trees and brush, to clear land, or just for the average bonfire and s’mores. Most…

Such obstacles have arisen primarily due to insufficiently understanding the complexity of natural components. As David Cole explains, with the progression of science, the complexity of how ecosystems work and the magnitude of support that wilderness management needs are far greater than previously envisioned. Due to the complexity of natural components, regardless of how well-studied, there are various information gaps which severely constrain management efforts. Likewise, many monitoring…

trophic cascade as an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition, or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling (huffingtonpost.com).” For that reason, in today’s society we have witnessed numerous trophic cascades that occur all over the world, specifically sea otters, blue crabs, jaguars, and as we discussed in class…

Wolves are still being killed! Although people tend to look down on wolves in general, it does not mean it's for good reason or acceptable. There is more to any creature then meets the eye, and for Wolves it is especially so. Gray Wolves are of a greater benefit then what we give them credit for and are often mistreated or otherwise viewed as something unwanted, unneeded, and ill-received. The Gray Wolf species has long been damned and slaughtered for minuscule infractions and illusions of…

evolution takes a lot of time (time you don’t have). If you ate things other than just Cheetos this would not impact you as much. This is an exaggeration and an oversimplification of a reason for biodiversity. Biodiversity allows for a more stable ecosystem. With between 10 and 100 million different species on believed to be on Earth there is a great diversity of life forms here, but is it enough, and how long will it take before this number starts plummeting?3 We all are all aware of how…

outbreaks due to the conducive environment for both pathogen and host. Cholera infections occur in three to five million people every year (WHO 2016). Copepods, zooplankton which act as a host for cholera bacteria, play a primary role in the tropical ecosystem and bloom in nutrient-rich waters. The risk of an outbreak can never be completely ruled out in these areas, and increasing temperatures and more frequent catastrophic events like earthquakes and hurricanes may allow for the disease’s…