Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment Discussion Opens UWs Harlow Summer Seminars in Jackson

Key findings from the Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment will be presented to kick off the University of Wyoming’s 2021 Harlow Summer Seminars in Jackson.

Bryan Shuman, UW Wyoming Excellence Chair and a professor in the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics, will discuss “Past, present and future climate change in Greater Yellowstone’s watersheds: The 2021 Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 24, at UW’s Teton County Extension office, located at 255 W. Deloney Ave.

The annual Harlow Summer Seminars program returns after a one-year hiatus because of COVID-19 concerns. The summer program is normally held at the UW-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station, located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park, but the facility is currently closed for renovations.

A dinner, at a cost of $5-10 per person, will take place at 5:30 p.m. before Shuman’s presentation. Reservations are not required.

Shuman will present key findings from the Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment, a collaborative project by UW, the U.S. Geological Survey, Montana State University and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

The assessment draws on the best available science to provide a basis for understanding the consequences of climate change in the region. Compared to both distant and recent past, temperatures are rising, snowfall is decreasing, and peak streamflow is occurring earlier, according to the study. These climate trends are projected to continue and accelerate in the future in the greater Yellowstone area.

Shuman’s research focuses on long-term changes in climate and its consequences for water, ecosystems and people. His work involves studies of the geological record of hydrologic and ecological change since the last ice age in the Wind River Range and Beartooth Mountains, as well as elsewhere in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, the Midwest and New England.

Shuman, who has been at UW since 2007, serves as director of the UW-NPS Research Station. The station provides a base for university faculty members, creative artists and government scientists from throughout North America to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area.

Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow Summer Seminars program is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant facility for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months.

UW’s Biodiversity Institute and the Wyoming Microbial Ecology Collaborative/EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) sponsor the summer series.

For more information about the Harlow Summer Seminars, email Anne Guzzo, UW-NPS Research Station associate director, at guzzo@uwyo.edu.