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Subject: Biology  Book Title: Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem
Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem
Elk Effects, Science, and Policy Conflict
Wagner, Frederic H. Director, Ecology Center, and Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Utah State University
Hamilton, Wayne L.
Keigley, Richard B
Print publication date: 2006
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2007
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-514821-3
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195148213.001.0001
 
Abstract: Historical accounts, park records, and biologists' observations indicated that wintering elk in Yellowstone's northern range were present in low numbers prior to and at park establishment in 1872; increased to 20,000-35,000 by the early 1900s when they heavily impacted the northern-range ecosystem; and declined to 3,172 censused animals in 1968 due to park control efforts. In 1967, the park announced a politically coerced natural-regulation policy terminating park control; and in 1971 posed a natural-regulation ecological hypothesis stating that northern-range elk had been numerous prior to 1872, had not risen to 20,000-35,000 in the early 1900s, and would stabilize at moderate numbers following recovery from control efforts without significantly affecting the northern-range ecosystem. Archaeological and historic evidence, park records, and censuses begun in the 1920s indicate a northern herd of ~5,000-6,000 in 1872, increasing to ~20,000-35,000 in the early 1900s, declining to a censused number of 3,172 in 1968 in response to control efforts, increasing to a census-based number of 21,071-25,920 in the 1980s and 1990s, then declining somewhat after 2000. This book reviews critically the published and unpublished records to test the natural-regulation hypothesis and propose a conceptual model of the northern-range ecosystem with inferences from system changes associated with the four stages of elk abundance, inside-outside exclosure comparisons, and system comparisons inside and outside park boundaries.

Keywords: natural-regulation policy, natural-regulation hypothesis, northern range, elk population, vegetation subsystems, sympatric ungulates, ecosystem processes, ecosystem model, biodiversity, research objectivity
Table of Contents
Preface
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1. History of the Northern Range Dispute
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2. The Census Period: 1923–2003
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3. Prehistory to the 1880s
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4. The First “Experiment”: 1878–1923
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5. The 132-Year Population Trajectory and Associated Synthesis Design
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6. Influences on Upland System Structure I: Aspen Woodland
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7. Influences on Upland System Structure II: The Sagebrush-Steppe Subsystem
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8. Influences on Upland System Structure III: Conifers and Deciduous Shrubs
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9. Influences on Upland System Structure IV: The Ungulate Guild
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10. Influences on Riparian System Structure
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11. Influences on Ecosystem Function I: Erosion
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12. Influences on Ecosystem Function II: Historical Perturbations in Small Lake Basins
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13. Influences on Ecosystem Function III: Bioenergetics
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14. Influences on Ecosystem Function IV: Nitrogen Biogeochemistry
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15. Synthesis
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16. Why the Science Missed the Mark
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17. The Science–Policy Interface
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Bibliography
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Index
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doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195148213.001.0001
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I A Yellowstone Synthesis
II Elk Population Changes and the Synthesis Design
III Elk Effects on Ecosystem Structure and Function
IV The Role of Science in Policy Process