Toward assessing the vulnerability of US National Parks to land use and climate change [Chapter 9]
| Authors: | A. Hansen, C. Davis, Jessica R. Haas, N. Piekielek |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Type: | Book Chapter |
| Station: | Rocky Mountain Research Station |
Abstract
European colonization of the new world led to rapid conversion of wildlands to agricultural and urban landscapes. The desire to protect remaining natural lands, in the late 1800s, emerged as the modern concept of protected areas. The argument for formal landscape protection was that by removing the influence of humans, natural ecosystems would continue to maintain native species and natural ecological processes (Gaston et al., 2008). There is growing evidence, however, that protected areas are not presently functioning as originally envisioned. Ecological change within protected areas has been brought about by land use intensification on surrounding lands (DeFries et al., 2005; Wade & Theobald, 2009; Radeloff et al., 2010; Piekielek & Hansen, 2012). Introduction of invasive species has resulted in the extinction of native species within protected area boundaries (Newmark, 1985; Parks & Harcourt, 2002; Sanchez‐Azofeifa et al., 2003). And in recent years, the effects of human‐induced climate change within protected areas have become apparent on such variables as decreasing snowpack, increased rates of disturbance, prevalence of pests, and forest die‐off (Loarie et al., 2009).