Investigating the status, distributions, and habitat quality of rock-obligate species within national park units of the Cascade Range
Project ID: P24AC01376
Federal Agency: National Park Service Partner Institution: Washington State University Fiscal Year: 2024
Initial Funding: $15,000
Total Funding: $35,000
National Park: Mount Rainier National Park Principal Investigator: Meddens, Arjan Agreement Technical Representative: Beavers, Sallie
Abstract:
Performance Goals – The role of national parks as refugia for wildlife will become increasingly important as species distributions shift in response to global climate change. Mountain ecosystems contain >90% of the nation’s most-strongly protected areas and have thus been assumed to be reservoirs and safe havens for biodiversity. As such, national park units within the North Coast Cascades Network (NCCN) including Mount Rainier National Park (MORA) and North Cascades National Park (NOCA) protect important habitat for climate-vulnerable species. Within the montane ecosystems are areas that are relatively buffered from the temperature effects of climate change. These climate refugia provide some protection for alpine and subalpine wildlife species vulnerable to the effects of climate change and includes the broken-rock habitat (talus) of the American pika (Ochotona princeps), hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) and Larch Mountain salamander (Plethodon larselii), as well as bird species.
This project will investigate the status of climate sensitive species and their distribution, and the habitat quality of climate refugia within the parks. These data are necessary for developing effective management strategies. The project will be phased, as funding is available, to develop a sampling design to utilize citizen-science, to collect citizen science data, and other data, on presence and distribution of broken-rock obligate species, analyze existing park data on pika in MORA to identify whether pika populations in the park are stable, increasing, or decreasing, and support work to map and examine quality of broken-rock habitat within park units to understand where these animals reside and how climate change may affect species distribution in the national parks.