Video explores climate change in Glacier Park

 A new video, “A Changing Landscape: Glacier’s Warming Climate,” explores current research on Glacier National Park’s melting glaciers and how the park’s ecosystem is responding to climate change.

The video can be viewed on the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center’s website at www.crownscience.org/Changing_Landscape or on Glacier Park’s website,  http://go.nps.gov/1kqbrc.

University of Montana graduate student Sarah Moody produced and edited the video as part of her graduate studies, with help from photographer Stephanie Oster.

As a recipient of the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center’s Jerry O’Neal National Park Service Student Fellowship, Moody worked with learning center staff to create and share the video.

The impacts of climate change at Glacier National Park are becoming increasingly evident.

Around 1850, there were an estimated 150 glaciers within the present boundaries of the park.

Today, only 25 glaciers remain and are predicted to disappear by 2030 if not earlier.

“Ecosystem impacts are more profound than the visual loss of losing glaciers,” Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow said in a news release.

“Although fossil records show that many species have adapted over time to changes in climate, the rapid rate of climate warming we’re currently experiencing is what will be challenging for many species.”

Drier woodlands fuel increasingly intense forest fires, and lower (and warmer) streamflows are affecting the aquatic food web as well as downstream human communities.

For more information on climate change impacts at Glacier, visit the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center’s website at www.crownscience.org.