Wetland biodiversity in Grand Teton National Park

Abstract

Freshwater wetlands support high biodiversity, yet many wetlands are subject to shifts in precipitation and temperature under projected climate patterns. These changes can alter wetland hydrological regimes, potentially leading to longer or more frequent dry periods, with effects that differ among taxa. In this thesis we aim to build on the understanding about biodiversity in wetlands and how these species may be affected by climate change, in hopes of providing information for land management. To accomplish these goals, we first focused on macroinvertebrates, a group that employs diverse strategies for surviving wetland drying. We explored the roles of wetland size, spatial isolation, and temporal isolation on macroinvertebrate richness and community composition. In summer 2018, we collected macroinvertebrates from 18 wetlands in Grand Teton National Park. We found macroinvertebrate family richness increased with wetland depth and slower rates of drying. We also found the interaction between spatial and temporal isolation explained the most variation in community composition for all the life history strategies we examined. Second, we explored the utility of different automated tools to monitor biodiversity in wetlands. In 2017, we placed wildlife cameras, as well as acoustic (audible and ultrasonic) recorders at 4 permanent wetlands in Grand Teton National Park for a week in June and August; we also completed a visual survey during each of these time intervals. We compared the number and type of species detected by each method over the summer to evaluate the effectiveness of each method for monitoring. Using wildlife cameras, in addition to visual surveys, increased the observation time at surveyed wetlands, captured complementary species, and recorded dynamics in the water level during the summer. These two chapters provide insights about how changes resulting from increased drying may affect one of the most biodiverse taxa and offer methods that allow monitoring of many taxa simultaneously.