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https://www.positive.news/society/how-bison-reawaken-oldest-national-park/>
"Yellowstone national park is witnessing a striking ecological recovery, driven
by the return of one of the US’s most iconic species. A study published in
Science in August shows how the migration of roughly 5,000 bison across the
park’s grasslands is restoring ancient patterns and reshaping the landscape
from the ground up.
Yellowstone’s bison are providing scientists with rare insights into how large
herbivores influence ecosystems. By grazing, trampling and fertilising the
land, they create a mosaic of habitats that supports a wider variety of plants
and animals, from insects to predators.
These bison, descendants from the last surviving wild herd, now roam across
nearly 1,000 miles each year along a 50-mile corridor, creating a patchwork of
grazed and ungrazed zones.
The research team, led by Bill Hamilton, an ecologist at Washington and Lee
University, compared vegetation and soil chemistry on grazed and fenced plots.
The result was that despite heavy grazing, plants grew as robustly as in
undisturbed areas and were 150% richer in protein.
“It truly is a reawakening of what had been there in the past,” said Hamilton,
urging readers to consider how far landscapes had shifted from their original
state. He added that Yellowstone grasslands are now “functioning better than in
their absence”, offering “a glimpse of what was lost” when bison were nearly
wiped out in the 19th century.
This revival follows decades of conservation, habitat protection and a
multi-agency management plan designed to balance ecological restoration with
disease control and agricultural concerns."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
