The National Park Service and US Geological Survey published a study in PLoS One Journal in July 2016 that shows the number of drivable days for oversnow vehicles (slowcoaches and snowmobiles) at Yellowstone National Park will decrease under all climate models and scenarios. Since 2000, Yellowstone National Park has been seeing lower average snowpack and snowfall levels. The number of days snow covering the ground has been declining, and the weather data shows that the snow season is ending early at most locations within the park. This trend is expected to continue as the temperature is projected to increase by 1-4 Celsius degrees during the 21st century. These data indicate that slowcoach and snowmobile use in the park will become increasingly limited in the near future. Less snow may sound great as more number of roads might open up to conventional automobiles during the winter season. But increased winter tourism and foot traffic would worsen the climate change in the park and threaten many iconic animals and geothermal features. Original article can be found here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159218 Can't access the original article? Find out more details about this article on our database: http://www.opensciencedb.com/federal-agency-research-db.html#search-federal-research-db/medical-research-db-search-result2/58c80b3dd5d49f2728fd0952/ |
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