Climate and Land Use

Isle Royale National Park’s populations of wolves and moose are world renown as the subjects of the world’s longest running predator/prey study. However, inbreeding depression among wolves began to take its toll in the early 2000’s, reducing the wolf population to just a lone pair by 2017. Following a multi-year environmental impact assessment, the National Park Service began re-introducing wolves...

Impact of UMESC ScienceTo provide a research tool enabling the National Park Service to better manage their resources for the betterment of the American public. Data sets developed by this program provide a structure for framing and answering critical scientific, planning, and management questions about vegetation communities and park natural resources and their relation to environmental processes...

Climate change models predict warmer temperatures, changes to precipitation patterns, and increased evapotranspiration in the Great Lakes region. Such climatic changes have altered, and are expected to further alter hydrological, chemical, and physical properties of inland lakes. Lake-dependent wildlife are often sensitive to changes in water quality, and are particularly susceptible to lake...