Climate Change for a Montana Watershed

The Clark Fork Coalition released the report Low Flows, Hot Trout in July 2008 in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation. While the report covers science and policy/action (policy/action is not the purpose of this blog), the science section of the report is a nice overview of climate change science and impacts for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Though the Clark Fork Watershed is not in the GYE proper, the issues faced there - e.g., increasing temperatures, earlier snowmelt and runoff, higher likelihood of wildfire and insect outbreaks - are the same as those in the GYE. Also, many of the studies referenced in the report look at all of Montana.

After looking at the Low Flows, Hot Trout report, check out these science sources:

Journal Article: The report reference list does include a Phil Mote publication looking at snowpack. This article, however, is more recent and covers a larger area of the west.
Journal Article: One more Phil Mote journal article looking at snowpack trends.

BSI resource: Lisa Graumlich, the former executive director for the Big Sky Institute, published work with a student and colleague looking at climate change impacts on conifer distribution in the GYE.

IPCC Report: The Clark Fork Coalition's report refers to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and their work several times. This summary document by the IPCC explores the scientific basis for climate change understanding.