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Outdoors
Meltwater Lednian Stone y larva. COURTESY USGS
Feds Say Glacier Stone ies Threatened by Climate Change Wildlife agency says greater protections needed for obscure alpine insects dependent on glacial streams
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
U.S. wildlife o cials have determined that greater protections are needed for two rare alpine insects found high in the glacial-fed streams of Glacier National Park, attributing its decision to climate change and the species’ diminishing cold aquatic habitat.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Oct. 3 proposed adding the western glacier stone y, or Zapada glacier, and the meltwater lednian stone y, or Led- nia tumana, to the government’s list of threatened species under the Endan- gered Species Act.
The stone ies live in streams fed by cold water from glaciers in Northwest Montana, but as those glaciers are pre- dicted to largely disappear by 2030, in part due to climate change, researchers say the stone ies also could vanish as well.
Joe Giersch, an aquatic entomologist with U.S. Geologic Survey who conducted much of the eld research the federal agency relied on to base its decision, said he considers the stone ies “charismatic
microfauna.” While they don’t loom as large as some of North America’s spe- cies of concern during discussions about a warming world — polar bears, griz- zlies, wolverines — the implications to the tiny aquatic insect are no less signi - cant due to its dependence on high-alpine melt-water streams in Glacier Park, mak- ing them the new poster-bugs of global warming.
They also play a critical role in the ecosystem as a whole, Giersch said, and their migratory retreat toward colder, higher-elevation streams serves as an indicator of the broader repercussions of habitat loss.
Stone ies are excellent indicators of the health of their freshwater habi- tats, Giersch said; extremely sensitive to changes in water quality, they are among the rst organisms to disappear from degraded rivers and streams. They also play a signi cant role in many aquatic ecosystems, decomposing leaves and other organic material and forming the base of the food chain.
“They are kind of a canary in a coal mine. They serve as a real indicator of
the health of the ecosystem,” Giersch said. “We talk about glaciers as being the water towers of the continent, the source of not just cold water but also permanent water, and the e ects of their loss will be felt not just by people but the ecosystem as a whole.”
It’s uncertain what measures man- agement agencies could take to preserve the insects, but Giersch has identi ed translocation, as well as raising stone- ies in laboratories and seeding di er- ent streams with them, as the most likely tool.
Clint Muhlfeld, a research ecologist at the USGS Northern Rockies Science Cen- ter in Glacier Park, said the proposed list- ing of the stone ies as threatened is sig- ni cant, and could mark the beginning of a cascade of species being listed with climate change as the most signi cant threat.
“These species are the only other spe- cies that I’m aware of that will be listed under the ESA due to climate change impacts, other than the polar bear,” he said. “They are the polar bears of Glacier National Park.”
“Also, more importantly, there will be winners and some losers as impending climate change and glacier loss unfolds,” he continued. “But these species are indicative of an entire ecosystem under threat due to climate warming.”
Giersch said Glacier is home to numer- ous cold-water dependent aquatic spe- cies that are at risk of extinction due to the loss of permanent snow and ice, and under the specter of a warming climate, the biodiversity of not just those species, but aquatic alpine species worldwide, is threatened.
He said the stone ies’ contracting habitat means action to mitigate the e ects of climate change on the species is imperative.
“It is de nitely unprecedented for the Fish and Wildlife Service to be taking such an interest in species like these, which for the most part don’t have a whole lot of vis- ible, direct economic or ecological value,” Giersch said. “But this is a powerful indi- cation of the threats that climate change pose to the biodiversity of the entire Crown of the Continent ecosystem.”
tscott@ atheadbeacon.com
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OCTOBER 5, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM