Audrey: Yellowstone National Park, located
in Wyoming is well renowned for its diverse
flora and fauna,
unique ecosystems and geothermal wonders.
Grasslands and shrublands in particular are
imperative food sources for bison, bighorn
sheep,
and elk in areas of low elevation on the park's
Northern Range.
Unfortunately, early season exotic species
are overtaking
these forage lands.
Heidi: The distribution of early season
exotic species, such as cheatgrass and alyssum,
in Yellowstone National Park
is unknowing.
Particularly, in the hard to reach areas known
as the backcountry.
Cheatgrass was first documented in
the park in 1930, followed by alyssum in 1952.
Both of these species were first documented
in the park on the Mammoth Terraces,
and both of them were likely here before they
were officially collected.
Stephanie: These plants have the ability
to do wholesale community change, which means
they are a great threat to our native
flora.
Our native flora also provides much wildlife
habitat, which is part of the reason most
people visit Yellowstone National
Park.
Audrey: The NASA Develop Yellowstone Ecological
forecasting team partnered with the National
Park service at Yellowstone National Park
to take a look at the spread of ESI species
from 1985 to 2017.
Heidi: We have several early season exotic
species in Yellowstone, both forbs and grasses.
Once introduced,
these tiny diminutive plants rapidly spread.
There can be thousands of individuals growing
amongst the native
flora making treatment options very difficult
and limited, especially using herbicides and
not wiping out the native plants.
Stephanie: Using remote sensing, we can
create a map of the current extent of our
early season exotics.
This will
help us begin to develop a management plan
to protect our native flora.
Mann: For this study, Landsat 5, Landsat
8, and SRTM NASA Earth Observations were obtained
and paired with field data
to run five models in software package called
Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling.
Zhe: We have several limitations in our
study, including high snow and cloud cover
on the study area during the growing season,
inadquete field data, and time constraints.
In future work, for this study, might incorporate
adequate field data and other important variables
to improve the precision of the models.
