63 results
Eskers associated with buried glaciers in Mars' mid latitudes: recent advances and future directions
- Frances E. G. Butcher, Neil S. Arnold, Matthew R. Balme, Susan J. Conway, Christopher D. Clark, Colman Gallagher, Axel Hagermann, Stephen R. Lewis, Alicia M. Rutledge, Robert D. Storrar, Savana Z. Woodley
-
- Journal:
- Annals of Glaciology / Volume 63 / Issue 87-89 / September 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 17 March 2023, pp. 33-38
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Until recently, the influence of basal liquid water on the evolution of buried glaciers in Mars' mid latitudes was assumed to be negligible because the latter stages of Mars' Amazonian period (3 Ga to present) have long been thought to have been similarly cold and dry to today. Recent identifications of several landforms interpreted as eskers associated with these young (100s Ma) glaciers calls this assumption into doubt. They indicate basal melting (at least locally and transiently) of their parent glaciers. Although rare, they demonstrate a more complex mid-to-late Amazonian environment than was previously understood. Here, we discuss several open questions posed by the existence of glacier-linked eskers on Mars, including on their global-scale abundance and distribution, the drivers and dynamics of melting and drainage, and the fate of meltwater upon reaching the ice margin. Such questions provide rich opportunities for collaboration between the Mars and Earth cryosphere research communities.
Using polygenic scores and clinical data for bipolar disorder patient stratification and lithium response prediction: machine learning approach – CORRIGENDUM
- Micah Cearns, Azmeraw T. Amare, Klaus Oliver Schubert, Anbupalam Thalamuthu, Joseph Frank, Fabian Streit, Mazda Adli, Nirmala Akula, Kazufumi Akiyama, Raffaella Ardau, Bárbara Arias, JeanMichel Aubry, Lena Backlund, Abesh Kumar Bhattacharjee, Frank Bellivier, Antonio Benabarre, Susanne Bengesser, Joanna M. Biernacka, Armin Birner, Clara Brichant-Petitjean, Pablo Cervantes, HsiChung Chen, Caterina Chillotti, Sven Cichon, Cristiana Cruceanu, Piotr M. Czerski, Nina Dalkner, Alexandre Dayer, Franziska Degenhardt, Maria Del Zompo, J. Raymond DePaulo, Bruno Étain, Peter Falkai, Andreas J. Forstner, Louise Frisen, Mark A. Frye, Janice M. Fullerton, Sébastien Gard, Julie S. Garnham, Fernando S. Goes, Maria Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Paul Grof, Ryota Hashimoto, Joanna Hauser, Urs Heilbronner, Stefan Herms, Per Hoffmann, Andrea Hofmann, Liping Hou, Yi-Hsiang Hsu, Stephane Jamain, Esther Jiménez, Jean-Pierre Kahn, Layla Kassem, Po-Hsiu Kuo, Tadafumi Kato, John Kelsoe, Sarah Kittel-Schneider, Sebastian Kliwicki, Barbara König, Ichiro Kusumi, Gonzalo Laje, Mikael Landén, Catharina Lavebratt, Marion Leboyer, Susan G. Leckband, Mario Maj, the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Mirko Manchia, Lina Martinsson, Michael J. McCarthy, Susan McElroy, Francesc Colom, Marina Mitjans, Francis M. Mondimore, Palmiero Monteleone, Caroline M. Nievergelt, Markus M. Nöthen, Tomas Novák, Claire O'Donovan, Norio Ozaki, Vincent Millischer, Sergi Papiol, Andrea Pfennig, Claudia Pisanu, James B. Potash, Andreas Reif, Eva Reininghaus, Guy A. Rouleau, Janusz K. Rybakowski, Martin Schalling, Peter R. Schofield, Barbara W. Schweizer, Giovanni Severino, Tatyana Shekhtman, Paul D. Shilling, Katzutaka Shimoda, Christian Simhandl, Claire M. Slaney, Alessio Squassina, Thomas Stamm, Pavla Stopkova, Fasil TekolaAyele, Alfonso Tortorella, Gustavo Turecki, Julia Veeh, Eduard Vieta, Stephanie H. Witt, Gloria Roberts, Peter P. Zandi, Martin Alda, Michael Bauer, Francis J. McMahon, Philip B. Mitchell, Thomas G. Schulze, Marcella Rietschel, Scott R. Clark, Bernhard T. Baune
-
- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 221 / Issue 2 / August 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 04 May 2022, p. 494
- Print publication:
- August 2022
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
Using polygenic scores and clinical data for bipolar disorder patient stratification and lithium response prediction: machine learning approach
- Micah Cearns, Azmeraw T. Amare, Klaus Oliver Schubert, Anbupalam Thalamuthu, Joseph Frank, Fabian Streit, Mazda Adli, Nirmala Akula, Kazufumi Akiyama, Raffaella Ardau, Bárbara Arias, Jean-Michel Aubry, Lena Backlund, Abesh Kumar Bhattacharjee, Frank Bellivier, Antonio Benabarre, Susanne Bengesser, Joanna M. Biernacka, Armin Birner, Clara Brichant-Petitjean, Pablo Cervantes, Hsi-Chung Chen, Caterina Chillotti, Sven Cichon, Cristiana Cruceanu, Piotr M. Czerski, Nina Dalkner, Alexandre Dayer, Franziska Degenhardt, Maria Del Zompo, J. Raymond DePaulo, Bruno Étain, Peter Falkai, Andreas J. Forstner, Louise Frisen, Mark A. Frye, Janice M. Fullerton, Sébastien Gard, Julie S. Garnham, Fernando S. Goes, Maria Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Paul Grof, Ryota Hashimoto, Joanna Hauser, Urs Heilbronner, Stefan Herms, Per Hoffmann, Andrea Hofmann, Liping Hou, Yi-Hsiang Hsu, Stephane Jamain, Esther Jiménez, Jean-Pierre Kahn, Layla Kassem, Po-Hsiu Kuo, Tadafumi Kato, John Kelsoe, Sarah Kittel-Schneider, Sebastian Kliwicki, Barbara König, Ichiro Kusumi, Gonzalo Laje, Mikael Landén, Catharina Lavebratt, Marion Leboyer, Susan G. Leckband, Mario Maj, the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Mirko Manchia, Lina Martinsson, Michael J. McCarthy, Susan McElroy, Francesc Colom, Marina Mitjans, Francis M. Mondimore, Palmiero Monteleone, Caroline M. Nievergelt, Markus M. Nöthen, Tomas Novák, Claire O'Donovan, Norio Ozaki, Vincent Millischer, Sergi Papiol, Andrea Pfennig, Claudia Pisanu, James B. Potash, Andreas Reif, Eva Reininghaus, Guy A. Rouleau, Janusz K. Rybakowski, Martin Schalling, Peter R. Schofield, Barbara W. Schweizer, Giovanni Severino, Tatyana Shekhtman, Paul D. Shilling, Katzutaka Shimoda, Christian Simhandl, Claire M. Slaney, Alessio Squassina, Thomas Stamm, Pavla Stopkova, Fasil Tekola-Ayele, Alfonso Tortorella, Gustavo Turecki, Julia Veeh, Eduard Vieta, Stephanie H. Witt, Gloria Roberts, Peter P. Zandi, Martin Alda, Michael Bauer, Francis J. McMahon, Philip B. Mitchell, Thomas G. Schulze, Marcella Rietschel, Scott R. Clark, Bernhard T. Baune
-
- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 220 / Issue 4 / April 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 28 February 2022, pp. 219-228
- Print publication:
- April 2022
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Background
Response to lithium in patients with bipolar disorder is associated with clinical and transdiagnostic genetic factors. The predictive combination of these variables might help clinicians better predict which patients will respond to lithium treatment.
AimsTo use a combination of transdiagnostic genetic and clinical factors to predict lithium response in patients with bipolar disorder.
MethodThis study utilised genetic and clinical data (n = 1034) collected as part of the International Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLi+Gen) project. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) were computed for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, and then combined with clinical variables using a cross-validated machine-learning regression approach. Unimodal, multimodal and genetically stratified models were trained and validated using ridge, elastic net and random forest regression on 692 patients with bipolar disorder from ten study sites using leave-site-out cross-validation. All models were then tested on an independent test set of 342 patients. The best performing models were then tested in a classification framework.
ResultsThe best performing linear model explained 5.1% (P = 0.0001) of variance in lithium response and was composed of clinical variables, PRS variables and interaction terms between them. The best performing non-linear model used only clinical variables and explained 8.1% (P = 0.0001) of variance in lithium response. A priori genomic stratification improved non-linear model performance to 13.7% (P = 0.0001) and improved the binary classification of lithium response. This model stratified patients based on their meta-polygenic loadings for major depressive disorder and schizophrenia and was then trained using clinical data.
ConclusionsUsing PRS to first stratify patients genetically and then train machine-learning models with clinical predictors led to large improvements in lithium response prediction. When used with other PRS and biological markers in the future this approach may help inform which patients are most likely to respond to lithium treatment.
Characterisation of age and polarity at onset in bipolar disorder
- Janos L. Kalman, Loes M. Olde Loohuis, Annabel Vreeker, Andrew McQuillin, Eli A. Stahl, Douglas Ruderfer, Maria Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Georgia Panagiotaropoulou, Stephan Ripke, Tim B. Bigdeli, Frederike Stein, Tina Meller, Susanne Meinert, Helena Pelin, Fabian Streit, Sergi Papiol, Mark J. Adams, Rolf Adolfsson, Kristina Adorjan, Ingrid Agartz, Sofie R. Aminoff, Heike Anderson-Schmidt, Ole A. Andreassen, Raffaella Ardau, Jean-Michel Aubry, Ceylan Balaban, Nicholas Bass, Bernhard T. Baune, Frank Bellivier, Antoni Benabarre, Susanne Bengesser, Wade H Berrettini, Marco P. Boks, Evelyn J. Bromet, Katharina Brosch, Monika Budde, William Byerley, Pablo Cervantes, Catina Chillotti, Sven Cichon, Scott R. Clark, Ashley L. Comes, Aiden Corvin, William Coryell, Nick Craddock, David W. Craig, Paul E. Croarkin, Cristiana Cruceanu, Piotr M. Czerski, Nina Dalkner, Udo Dannlowski, Franziska Degenhardt, Maria Del Zompo, J. Raymond DePaulo, Srdjan Djurovic, Howard J. Edenberg, Mariam Al Eissa, Torbjørn Elvsåshagen, Bruno Etain, Ayman H. Fanous, Frederike Fellendorf, Alessia Fiorentino, Andreas J. Forstner, Mark A. Frye, Janice M. Fullerton, Katrin Gade, Julie Garnham, Elliot Gershon, Michael Gill, Fernando S. Goes, Katherine Gordon-Smith, Paul Grof, Jose Guzman-Parra, Tim Hahn, Roland Hasler, Maria Heilbronner, Urs Heilbronner, Stephane Jamain, Esther Jimenez, Ian Jones, Lisa Jones, Lina Jonsson, Rene S. Kahn, John R. Kelsoe, James L. Kennedy, Tilo Kircher, George Kirov, Sarah Kittel-Schneider, Farah Klöhn-Saghatolislam, James A. Knowles, Thorsten M. Kranz, Trine Vik Lagerberg, Mikael Landen, William B. Lawson, Marion Leboyer, Qingqin S. Li, Mario Maj, Dolores Malaspina, Mirko Manchia, Fermin Mayoral, Susan L. McElroy, Melvin G. McInnis, Andrew M. McIntosh, Helena Medeiros, Ingrid Melle, Vihra Milanova, Philip B. Mitchell, Palmiero Monteleone, Alessio Maria Monteleone, Markus M. Nöthen, Tomas Novak, John I. Nurnberger, Niamh O'Brien, Kevin S. O'Connell, Claire O'Donovan, Michael C. O'Donovan, Nils Opel, Abigail Ortiz, Michael J. Owen, Erik Pålsson, Carlos Pato, Michele T. Pato, Joanna Pawlak, Julia-Katharina Pfarr, Claudia Pisanu, James B. Potash, Mark H Rapaport, Daniela Reich-Erkelenz, Andreas Reif, Eva Reininghaus, Jonathan Repple, Hélène Richard-Lepouriel, Marcella Rietschel, Kai Ringwald, Gloria Roberts, Guy Rouleau, Sabrina Schaupp, William A Scheftner, Simon Schmitt, Peter R. Schofield, K. Oliver Schubert, Eva C. Schulte, Barbara Schweizer, Fanny Senner, Giovanni Severino, Sally Sharp, Claire Slaney, Olav B. Smeland, Janet L. Sobell, Alessio Squassina, Pavla Stopkova, John Strauss, Alfonso Tortorella, Gustavo Turecki, Joanna Twarowska-Hauser, Marin Veldic, Eduard Vieta, John B. Vincent, Wei Xu, Clement C. Zai, Peter P. Zandi, Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) Bipolar Disorder Working Group, International Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLiGen), Colombia-US Cross Disorder Collaboration in Psychiatric Genetics, Arianna Di Florio, Jordan W. Smoller, Joanna M. Biernacka, Francis J. McMahon, Martin Alda, Bertram Müller-Myhsok, Nikolaos Koutsouleris, Peter Falkai, Nelson B. Freimer, Till F.M. Andlauer, Thomas G. Schulze, Roel A. Ophoff
-
- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 219 / Issue 6 / December 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 August 2021, pp. 659-669
- Print publication:
- December 2021
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Background
Studying phenotypic and genetic characteristics of age at onset (AAO) and polarity at onset (PAO) in bipolar disorder can provide new insights into disease pathology and facilitate the development of screening tools.
AimsTo examine the genetic architecture of AAO and PAO and their association with bipolar disorder disease characteristics.
MethodGenome-wide association studies (GWASs) and polygenic score (PGS) analyses of AAO (n = 12 977) and PAO (n = 6773) were conducted in patients with bipolar disorder from 34 cohorts and a replication sample (n = 2237). The association of onset with disease characteristics was investigated in two of these cohorts.
ResultsEarlier AAO was associated with a higher probability of psychotic symptoms, suicidality, lower educational attainment, not living together and fewer episodes. Depressive onset correlated with suicidality and manic onset correlated with delusions and manic episodes. Systematic differences in AAO between cohorts and continents of origin were observed. This was also reflected in single-nucleotide variant-based heritability estimates, with higher heritabilities for stricter onset definitions. Increased PGS for autism spectrum disorder (β = −0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), major depression (β = −0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), schizophrenia (β = −0.39 years, s.e. = 0.08), and educational attainment (β = −0.31 years, s.e. = 0.08) were associated with an earlier AAO. The AAO GWAS identified one significant locus, but this finding did not replicate. Neither GWAS nor PGS analyses yielded significant associations with PAO.
ConclusionsAAO and PAO are associated with indicators of bipolar disorder severity. Individuals with an earlier onset show an increased polygenic liability for a broad spectrum of psychiatric traits. Systematic differences in AAO across cohorts, continents and phenotype definitions introduce significant heterogeneity, affecting analyses.
7 - Coherence and Policy
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 161-188
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The facts about humanity's contemporary damage—
and threats of even more perilous future damage—
to the environment are almost too much with us.
They scream in horrifying detail, not merely from the face of nature
but from every medium of communication.
Policy is a word we hear often. There are at least ten definitions of the concept policy. For sure, policy is about decision-making, setting strategic aims, and implementation. It is typically political as well as empirical. Management uses programs to carry out policy prescriptions. Newspapers are full of comments about various policies in the GYE, especially the adequacy of those meant to conserve wildlife (e.g., Endangered Species Act and grizzly bears). Some people say that we need new policy. For example, the news is full of claims that better GYE-wide policy is needed for wolves, elk migrations, and visitor numbers. Claimants for new policy are frequently met by counterclaimants saying that current policy is fine (e.g., grizzly bear management claims by environmentalists vs. counterclaims made by some Wyoming citizens and officials). Elk management in Wyoming is another contentious issue, especially around feedlots and over chronic wasting disease (CWD). There are many problematic policy challenges in the GYE and there is always room to do better. Typically, we take on GYE policy issues one at a time and talk about them in concrete management terms (e.g., wolf numbers, grizzly bear deaths, deer movements). But there is confusion over policy as a concept and practice, and with its inherent politics, and therefore policy is often a messy process.
To me, overall GYE policy process raises bigger questions. Most broadly, the key question is what overarching policy is needed to ensure a long-term healthy future for the GYE? For example, what is being called for by claimants that new policy is needed and existing policy is ineffective? What is coherent policy? When we get bogged down in disputes over technical challenges and technical solutions, are we missing the forest for the trees? In this chapter, I examine the concept “policy,” explore the policy process, analytic approaches available to us, and look specifically at GYE cases (e.g., elk management).
Coherent GYE policy should be logical, consistent, and justified. It should be clear, ordered, and integrated. The elements of coherent policy are carefully considered and each part of it connects or follows in a natural or reasonable way.
11 - Creating a New Story, the Long View
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 259-282
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The major problems in the world are the result of the differences
between how nature works and the way people think.
Society is partway to creating a new story of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Can we finish our journey to that story? The current record of our behavior in the GYE is decidedly mixed. The new story, our best hope for the future, embodies our growing understanding of what nature is and what an ethic for coexistence should be. The new knowledge and ethic together open a route toward sustainability, if we take that path and the long view. We now know that Yellowstone National Park is only part of a much larger regional open ecosystem connected through ecological processes to the rest of the world. This allows us to view the challenge of conserving the GYE's migrations and carnivores more realistically than a few short decades ago. It also allows us to better see our own actions today, their consequences, and also it details our hoped-for new ethic for the ecosystem and wildlife. We can now see what we need to do as we work ahead toward greater understanding and responsibility.
Briefly, to use the words offered by the physicist and philosopher David Bohm, “What is needed is thus a creative attitude to the whole, allowing for a constantly fresh perception of reality, which requires an unending creation of new meaning.” The new meaning and story are about integration, coexistence, and ethics. In closing this book, I offer a general assessment of the whole GYE story to date and provide specific recommendations to move us closer to the needed creative attitude, ethic, and actions toward wildlife and nature. To put it most simply, we need a new system of living with nature and wildlife and a new conservation story to guide us there. What we do in the GYE is of great interest to people worldwide.
The GYE conservation challenge is urgent because of our growing human population and intensifying harmful development, recreation, and other uses, especially on public lands. Data currently shows that humans are impacting the ecosystem in many unintended but detrimental ways. Recognition of these facts is growing in the public and professional sphere.
Preface
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp xix-xxviii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Experience is a hard teacher
because she gives the test first,
the lessons afterwards.
— UnknownYellowstone is a national park, a concept of a greater ecosystem, and, even more so, an “idea” about the wild, wildlife, and people. This “idea” is in our stories of hope for a future where humans live sustainably with nature— something we’re presently not doing. Yellowstone as a reference point for nature is widely recognized no matter where one lives on our home planet.
What is this book about and why did I write it? These two questions have complex and incomplete answers, as explained in this preface and the text of all chapters. First, about this book: it is focused on Yellowstone National Park as a place and an idea with a long history, a present to be visited, and a contested future that we have long argued over. Yellowstone as a theme and symbol grounds this book in a place, time, and set of issues. I give scientific data, use systems thinking, and talk about grounded case examples concerning Yellowstone. Beyond that, most importantly, this book concentrates attention on people in general and on those who care about Yellowstone, including ourselves.
In so doing, I bring in knowledge from many fields seldom used currently by people worried about Yellowstone's future. The present focus of attention by most people is on biophysical things “out there” (e.g., wolves and bears, elk migrations, diseases, and fires). Consequently, it misses a huge component in Yellowstone's future— people, us. I organize the information I offer around people and work to give us context— historic, social, and political— for all things Yellowstone. Because Yellowstone's future has yet to be written, we can use this information in new integrated ways to create a healthy, thriving future for greater Yellowstone and ourselves.
This book's contents go well beyond Yellowstone as a geologic and biologic phenomenon to concentrate upon human beings. It is about the individuals who support conservation and sustainability in their thinking, feelings, and actions. It is also a reflection on our society and an exploration of a new way forward for better outcomes in all areas. The proposal here is to advance sustainability in the present in Yellowstone and outward far beyond that special place to other places worldwide. Many of us are alarmed by the ways in which environments, other living forms, and peoples are being treated.
Acknowledgments
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp xxix-xxx
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Part 1 - Yellowstone as a Story
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 23-24
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The few surveyed stories in the first chapter about the meaningfulness of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) are only a small sampling. At the heart of each of the stories, perhaps even unknown to authors of those stories, is concern about three basic questions as noted below. The three chapters in Part 1 look at what the physical and biological sciences tell us about Yellowstone. It is important to start with these two levels before moving on to look at the human— our mental level— in Parts 2 and 3. This part grounds the rest of this book.
Please keep the following questions in sharp focus. These are all broad questions. First, what is Yellowstone as nature or as the wild? Do we go to Yellowstone to find and experience nature? More simply, why do we go to Yellowstone?
Second, what do you bring inside you (e.g., expectations), as one who experiences Greater Yellowstone? For sure we are each a human with an evolutionary, personal, and cultural history as we each make sense of nature while we experience Yellowstone. This sensemaking for many people may be completely unconscious and subjective. For other people it may be conscious and active.
And third, what is our relationship to nature, the wild, and the plants and animals with which we share the world? What should our relationship be? In the GYE, like almost nowhere else, we can witness, even participate in nature with hundreds of big animals (i.e., bison, elk, wolves, bears) all around us. We also get to experience vast landscapes relatively untouched by humans. This is a rare experience for visitors given our population size and land-use conversion on this planet. What are we to make of the panorama, all the animals, and ecology?
The GYE today is a marvel, but it is riddled with challenges— small and large, short-and long-term, and minor and deeply profound ones— all at the same time. The challenges in the region that we face are time urgent.
3 - Greater Yellowstone as a System
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 49-76
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
It is clear […] that the fate of humankind [and nature] increasingly depend
on what humans do, and in turn, it depend[s] on their
images of the future– – their visions of preferable, possible, and probable
futures (and today I would add preventable futures), as well as their ability
to design effective actions to achieve their preferable future
and to avoid undesirable futures.
The US Congress passed the Wilderness Act in 1964 committing us to the value of preserving areas “of the earth and its community of life [that are] untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Designated wilderness areas were to be managed in such a way to leave them unimpaired as wilderness for the American people. Although little of Greater Yellowstone is formally designated Wilderness, much of it is of a wilderness quality. The Wilderness Act stated clearly that they are to be preserved as wilderness and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness. There are several official wildernesses in the GYE (e.g., Jediahiah Smith, Gros Ventre, Teton, Washakie, Absaroka). They are managed by the National Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management and other government agencies depending on where they are. Importantly, the Act laid out a process for the long-term study and additional official wilderness designations. Two such wilderness study areas (WSAs) are south of Jackson, Wyoming– – the Palisades and Shoal Creek Wilderness Study Areas.
The fate of these two WSAs, each several tens of thousands of acres, was deliberated for two years by citizens and officials in Teton County, Wyoming. By the fall of 2018, there was little agreement on what to do despite formally designed and facilitated workshops and the investment of thousands of person-hours and tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars. Finally, the news headlines said it all: “County gives up on land initiative: No recommendation coming from commissioners on new wilderness.” Perhaps this effort failed to secure an integrated outcome in the best interests of people involved because the wrong “problem-solving” design and facilitation process was used. Perhaps it failed because the interests, knowledge, and skills of people involved were not up to the task asked of them. Or perhaps, other factors caused it to fail.
Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021
-
This book focuses on Yellowstone: the park, the larger ecosystem, and even more so, the ‘idea’ of Yellowstone. In presenting a case for a new conservation paradigm for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), including Yellowstone National Park, the book, at its heart, is about people and nature relationships. This new paradigm will be truly committed to a healthy, sustainable environment, rich in other life forms, and one that affords dignity for all: humans and nonhumans. The new story or paradigm must be about living such a commitment and future for GYE in real time. The book presents a well-developed theory for interdisciplinary problem solving that is grounded in practice.
Part 3 - Working for Ecosystem Conservation
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 189-190
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Part 3 offers strategic, yet practical options to address GYE's multifaceted problems. It builds on and extends all preceding sections. It draws on my half-century's experience in the ecosystem, working in other ecosystems in North American and on other continents, and from broad research, teaching, and fieldwork worldwide.
This part encourages greater foresight and the development of new knowledge, skills, and enhanced self-awareness to best address GYE's problems. The options and examples offered provide a practical way to transition to better thinking and actions that lead to enhanced conservation. As I see it, we must culturally create a new conservation story that offers a sustainable way for nature and people to coexist— a new GYE conservation paradigm that becomes widely accepted and lived on the ground. It must be sufficiently realistic to provide pragmatic steps, actions, and process to make a difference.
In Part 3— on challenges, learning, and the work ahead— I offer options for greater effectiveness in conservation on the ground through cooperative arrangements and upgraded management policy. In Chapter 8 on “Challenges and Future,” I revisit promises we made to ourselves about the special place we call GYE today. This chapter offers a series of actionable problem definitions and alternatives to address existing problems. If used, these can be transformative. What we do on the ground is the only place that really matters.
Chapter 9 on “Learning and Transforming” highlights the need to upgrade our ability to orient realistically to shared, widespread problems, to colearn a way to address them, and to transform our thinking and behavior to make a real difference. To be successful, we will need high-order leadership and new everyday skills for enhanced problem solving. This chapter offers practice-based, on-the-ground options.
Chapter 10 on “The Work Ahead” suggests a new cultural (institutional) story of meaning for GYE and ourselves in it. All of us need to see GYE as a whole, with ourselves as part of that holistic, evolving system. The sharp distinction between people and nature is outdated. The future of GYE depends on whether we choose to come to an integrated conservation story and appropriate follow-on actions or not. The new story or paradigm is slowly emerging in some circles in the regional society and well beyond.
8 - Challenges and Future
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 191-206
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Compromise is a difficult thing to find in Teton County
[…] there's so much money at stake.
The Teton Mountains, which lie in the heart of the GYE, are one of the most widely recognized mountain ranges in the world. The glaciers that sculpted the mountains over their four million years ago largely disappeared around ten thousand years before the present, though some glacial ice and snow remain year-round in the heads of glacial troughs and are visible from the highway in Jackson Hole. Due to the rapidly changing weather and climate, these glacial remnants are disappearing quickly, as are the glaciers in the Wind River and Absaroka Ranges in Wyoming and Montana. Retreating glaciers are just one example of the effects of climate change on the ecology of the GYE. For humans and animals alike, big change is on the wind.
Humans are a very recent species in a very old landscape, yet currently, we are agents of dramatic change, and not only in the GYE. Homo sapiens is now a planetary force, and the impacts of human activity can be found in most planetary systems. Our widespread use of ammonium fertilizer, for example, has dramatically altered the global nitrogen cycle, and humans have transformed 75 percent of Earth's surface. In recognition of the profound impact that human beings have on our planet, scholars have introduced the term “Anthropocene” to describe our current geologic epoch. Unfortunately, many of our impacts are negative and uncontained. We are losing species and ecosystems at rate almost one thousand times the background rate. Tom Butler of the Northeast Wilderness Trust noted in his 2005 book Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot, “The wild beauty, ecological richness, and cultural diversity [is] being swept away by the rising tide of humanity.” The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is not immune.
This chapter focuses on challenges that we face “out there” in the environment and “in here” in our minds, thoughts, and meaning making. It offers a three-part, interconnected problem definition— conventional, systemic, and cultural— and offers pragmatic options to address these challenges. We must focus on understanding problems first, before we can find solutions to them.
Greater Yellowstone for Tomorrow
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a value-laden cultural icon in which many people have a stake. As such, the GYE provokes veneration, confusion, and political conflict. So, what is GYE's future?
Frontmatter
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp i-vi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Contents
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp ix-xii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
2 - Yellowstone and Significance
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 25-48
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife
therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner
and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for future generations.
Just after daybreak on a November morning in 1975, headed north out of Jackson, Wyoming, I sat stunned watching hundreds of elk rushing across the shallow, icy Gros Ventre River. The migrating herd was 10– 20 animals wide and a quarter of a mile long; the magnificent creatures were backlit by the rising sun, steam jetting from their nostrils, with Sleeping Indian Mountain behind them on the eastern horizon. I watched, riveted by the splendor and urgency of their passage. The long-distance migrations of elk and other ungulates are one of the great natural wonders of the Greater Yellowstone region. But nearly 50 years later, some migrations are now lost, and still more are threatened. Today, no one can see that migration I came across in 1975. Now there is a bike path bridge blocking the view from the highway.
This chapter looks first at the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's (GYE’s) biotic significance, emphasizing migrations and large carnivores as ecological processes, and places this knowledge in the context of evolution, ecology, and ecologists. Second, the chapter examines the biotic communities and ecosystem that are the GYE today by modern science standards. This is largely a task of gathering, organizing, and summarizing facts and thinking in terms of complex evolving ecological systems and the contemporary challenges for humans living in such a place. Third, the chapter briefly recounts the region's human history or ecology from the nineteenth century to the present, including the many people, over two hundred years, who have committed themselves to protecting this land and life for us to enjoy. Finally, I survey the formal, authoritative goals for the GYE— past, present, and, of course, future. It is our task, in our time, to refine and live up to the legacy we have inherited and the responsibility we bear.
This chapter continues using the heuristic outlined in Chapter 1 about people seeking meaning (values) through society (institutions), using and affecting resources (the environment). Looking at the GYE through an ecological lens gives us an understanding of GYE’s wildlife, landscapes, and history. With this knowledge, we can best ensure a healthy future for the GYE, if we so choose.
1 - Stories of People, Nature, Yellowstone
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 1-22
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Yellowstone is loved and overrun because it offers a glimpse of what life used to be like, or what we miss and want from it.
The Yellowstone we know and love is endangered. Many of us have a sense of the vast challenges facing the region given the environmental and social changes underway. We see the growing litany of threats in newspapers and on social media. Suburban development, road and trail expansion, front and back country recreation, record-breaking visitation, traffic and wildlife jams, disruption of ecological processes, fragmentation of wildlife habitat, changes in migration patterns, threatened species, invasive species, oil and gas development, loss of wildness, and wildlife disease are all salient challenges. With multiple geographic and political divisions in the region, integrated management across artificial boundaries to address problems is itself problematic, as is the lack of farsighted, coordinated, overarching leadership. Though these interconnected problems are diverse in nature and impact, they all derive from the same underlying source: us.
For people who live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) today, the rapid rate of change is cause for considerable concern. Many people are worried that we are losing the habitats and species that have defined our stories about pristine wildness in Yellowstone. Superintendent Dan Wenk said, “This is an extraordinary region [that] isn't like [everywhere else] nor should we accept that its slow, steady disintegration is [in] evitable.”
When asked about the most ominous threats facing Yellowstone today, Dennis Glick of Future West in Bozeman, Montana, said, “Number one would be the effects of climate changes: droughts, big wildfires, and diseases that were never here before […] [and today] humankind may very well be loving this place to death.” While for many people, the threats of climate change seem to loom far in the future, it is already easy to see the miles of dead and dying trees from the main roads, and the effects are only going to become more dramatic. For example, the next few decades of change will very likely cause more fires, less forest, larger grasslands, smaller and hotter waterways, increased invasive plants, and fewer big animals. Many native species may not be able to adapt to this rapid change.
The GYE is experiencing dramatic change to be sure, and consequently its historic and cultural meaning is changing, too.
4 - Boundaries and Context
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 77-106
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The earth was formed whole and continuous in the universe, without lines.
The human mind arose in the universe needing lines, boundaries, distinctions.
Donella Meadows, Global Citizens Columns, 1978“The fate of Yellowstone National Park's wildlife hinges on lands and events far beyond the boundaries,” noted Chuck Preston of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. He is just one among a growing chorus of voices making the same point— the GYE is an open system that is constantly in interaction with surrounding areas and as such, a large view of the context is required to effectively attain our conservation goals in the region. The need for a contextual view is valid for all land and seascape systems worldwide, whether parks, reserves, wildlife refuges, or public lands. Context considerations are often underattended to in management and policy.
This chapter looks at GYE's context and allows us to see how the GYE is situated or nested at various scales. In doing so, I target the concept of resources. The GYE is a resource, but what exactly is a resource, how can we grasp GYE resource dimensions, and what are the views we hold about resources? These are more complex questions than one might at first think. Our answer determines what we do to and for nature and wildlife, and ourselves. As we will see, our society has a built-in view of resources that prefigures how we see and exploit nature. A new story of the GYE would change that old view of resource and context to one that truly permits coexistence, sustainability, and adaptability.
Looking at the GYE as a resource, both as a raw (natural) and cultural resource, over varying scales of space, time, and complexity is a subject that ranges from concrete matters (e.g., old faithful) to conceptual and philosophic matters (e.g., what is a resource, who gets to use resources for what purposes, and what are GYE's cultural resources and nonconsumptive values?). Recall that what a resource is changes over time. For example, at one time oil was not a resource, nor was atomic energy. The terms resources, boundaries, and context are notions or linguistic concepts humans made up, so we could use nature in an orderly way.
Index
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 321-330
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
10 - The Work Ahead
- Susan G. Clark
-
- Book:
- Yellowstone's Survival - A Call to Action for a New Conservation Story
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 22 May 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2021, pp 237-258
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
To live successfully in a world of systems requires more of us
than our ability to calculate. It requires our full humanity,
our rationality, our ability to sort out truth from falsehoods,
our intuition, our compassion, our vision, and our morality.
Grizzly bear #399 and her family are the most famous grizzly bears in the world, and their story provides a snapshot of our changing relationship with wildlife. It brings to focus the work needed to conserve grizzly bears, other species, and ecological processes for the benefit of people and all other life. Over the last few decades, #399 and her offspring have lived in and around Grand Teton National Park. In 2020 this 24-year-old mom had four cubs. She has become an easily recognizable symbol for conservation issues in the GYE. This is why she and her family have come to personalize wildlife and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to millions of people worldwide. This fosters concern for this families welfare, and sparks a deep interest, as we watch the effects of social and environmental change unfolding all around them. People interact with these bears by viewing them from the safety of their vehicles and through social media. Grizzly #399 has come to exemplify a decades-long battle to protect grizzly bears throughout the GYE, which is itself really a metaphor, a symbolic story, about trying to conserve the GYE itself. The stories that we tell about #399 reflect who we are as humans, how we view wildlife, and what we are doing in nature.
We have created a powerful narrative about grizzly #399 and her family over the years. This narrative came about as photographers and journalists shared their observations, images, and story for the public, such as the beautifully documented photographs of Tom Mangelsen's book Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek: An Intimate Portrait of 399 (The Most Famous Bear of Greater Yellowstone).2 Her playful cubs engage people. What does this story really mean to us? Is there a deeper meaning than just seeing a bear? In 2015, a headline claimed, “399 is the poster bear for all the bruin clan.” The author, Todd Wilkinson, said, “I think about the gift she represents in waking up millions of people to the miracle that Greater Yellowstone's grizzly population was rescued from the brink of annihilation.