INVESTIGATORS' ANNUAL REPORTS 2002 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Yellowstone Center for Resources P.O. Box 168 Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190 December 2004 YCR Annual Report: YCR-IAR-2004-01 Cover: An in situ growth vial, designed to detect the presence of subsurface microbiota, is attached to a stainless steel cable for deployment into Yellowstone's Well Y-7. Photo by John Spear, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Acknowledgements: The National Park Service thanks the researchers that have contributed to our knowledge and understanding of Yellowstone. This report was compiled and edited by Christie Hendrix, Christine Smith, and Virginia Warner. Yellowstone National Park 1 FOREWORD The long-term preservation of natural resources makes national parks reservoirs of information of great value to humanity, and perhaps today more than ever before, America’s national parks are being recognized as being more than pleasuring grounds and nature preserves. The NPS’s Natural Resource Challenge urges that in addition to using science as a means to improve park manage- ment, parks can and should be centers for broad scientific research and inquiry. The national parks have long-captured the imagination of scientists, who recognized them as places where we could observe natural processes operating in places that had been less subject to human alteration than most others throughout the nation, and indeed throughout the world. In Yellowstone, those kinds of observed processes have ranged from macro-scale studies of landscape changes affecting the local ecosystem to micro-scale studies of tiny organisms that have the poten- tial to change the lives of people the world over, making the protection of this wilderness relevant and crucial even to those who will never know its aesthetic and recreational wonders. There are more than 400 index entries in this year’s Investigators’ Annual Report. That is a lot of science; a lot of knowledge being collected that needs to be shared. This report should not be seen as the body of that knowledge, but rather as its skeleton. Contact information is provided so that readers may learn more about the projects and results described here. All persons who wish to con- duct their own research in Yellowstone are required to apply for a permit. Information on permit- ting procedures is available from the Research Permitting Office, Yellowstone Center for Resources, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190, or at <www.nps.gov/yell/technical/research- permits/index.htm>. 2 2002 Investigators’ Annual Reports TABLE OF CONTENTS AIR POLLUTION EFFECTS .....................................................................................................................4 AIR QUALITY ........................................................................................................................................6 ANIMAL COMMUNITIES ........................................................................................................................7 ARCHEOLOGY .....................................................................................................................................11 ECOLOGY ...........................................................................................................................................13 EXOTIC SPECIES ..................................................................................................................................54 FIRE ....................................................................................................................................................58 FISHERIES ...........................................................................................................................................65 GEOCHEMISTRY ..................................................................................................................................71 GEOLOGY ...........................................................................................................................................79 GEOMORPHOLOGY .............................................................................................................................84 GEOPHYSICS .......................................................................................................................................86 GEOSEDIMENTOLOGY .........................................................................................................................88 GEOSTRUCTURE .................................................................................................................................89 GEOTHERMAL/VOLCANOLOGY ...........................................................................................................91 HERPETOLOGY .................................................................................................................................101 HYDROLOGY .....................................................................................................................................104 INFORMATION SYSTEMS ...................................................................................................................109 INVERTEBRATES ................................................................................................................................110 LAND USE ........................................................................................................................................112 LICHENS ...........................................................................................................................................113 MAMMOLOGY ..................................................................................................................................114 MAPS/CARTOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................117 MICROBIOLOGY ................................................................................................................................119 MONITORING NATURAL RESOURCES ...............................................................................................151 OTHER .............................................................................................................................................155 PALEONOTOLOGY .............................................................................................................................158 PLANT COMMUNITIES ......................................................................................................................161 PROTISTA ..........................................................................................................................................165 SOCIAL SCIENCE ...............................................................................................................................166 THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES .......................................................................................169 VASCULAR PLANTS ...........................................................................................................................172 WATER QUALITY ..............................................................................................................................174 WATER RESOURCES ..........................................................................................................................175 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................176 WETLANDS .......................................................................................................................................178 INDEX OF INVESTIGATORS ................................................................................................................179 Yellowstone National Park 3 AIR POLLUTION EFFECTS Project title: Effects of Snowmobile Use on Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds in the Yellowstone National Park Snowpack Principal Investigator: Dr. Bonnie Tyler Phone: 801-587-9696 Email: [email protected] Address: 50 S. Central Campus Dr. Room 3290 University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Objective: The objective of this study has been to determine if semi-volatile organic compounds in the YNP snowpack and snowmelt can be attributed to snowmobile traffic. In addition, it was desired to determine whether these compounds accumulate in the snow to levels that pose an environmental hazard and to provide a preliminary estimate of the extent of their persistence in the impacted area. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other semi-volatile organic species as priority pollutants, there have been very few studies of these species in snowpack. Consequently, this project has included development of reliable methods for sample collection and analysis of semi-volatile species from mobile sources in snow. Findings: During the winter of 2002, snow samples were collected at five sites situated along the West Yellowstone–Madison Junction road between the West Entrance and the Madison River Road. The samples were collected both on the road and at distances of 3 and 15 meters perpendicular to the road. The sample containers were immediately transported to our laboratories at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, where they were stored in freezers and subsequently