Snowpack Decline Causes Cascading Ecological Effects in the Rockies

A collaboration of researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Montana say that the diminishing of the overall snowpack covering the Rocky Mountains is leading to a classic cascading ecological effect in surrounding habitats and ecosystems.

Researchers determined that a very strong shift can be seen in plant and bird communities that depend on the mountains for their very survival. The changes ripple through new ecosystems at an alarming pace, the team also believes.

In a paper published in the January 8 issue of the top scientific journal Nature Climate Change, researchers with the group say that the changes they are noticing were caused in only two decades or so, which is an extremely short period of time in planetary history.

USGS director Marcia McNutt says that the new conclusions again highlight the profound impact that global warming and climate change are having on the environment. The most worrying thing is that a series of unexplored feedback mechanisms contributing to these phenomena may exist.

“The significance lies in the fact that humans and our economy are at the end of the same chain of cascading consequences,” McNutt says. If the potential feedback mechanisms are there – and continue to go unknown – then we cannot hope to be precise in estimating what will happen next.

Climate scientists have been predicting how global warming will influence the world, but even they provided longer time frames for the effects to take place. As it stands, it would appear that global weather patterns are being affected more readily than anyone expected.

“This study demonstrates that the indirect effects of climate on plant communities may be just as important as the effects of climate-change-induced mismatches between migrating birds and food abundance because plants, including trees, provide the habitat birds need to survive,” Thomas Martin explains.

The study team member holds an appointment as a research scientist with the USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. He authored the new research paper with University of Montana scientist John Maron, the Summit County Voice reports.