Climate Change and Bear Foods

From the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS):

Climate Change and Bear Foods

Huckleberry cobbler, huckleberry ice cream, huckleberry cheesecake...do we have your attention? 

No, we don't plan to start a food blog, but black and grizzly bears also saver the purple berries.

Meet Tabitha Graves, a USGS Research Ecologist working out of Glacier National Park in Montana. Tabitha's research is looking at potential effects of climate change on bear foods such as huckleberries.

Using remote cameras and field observations, Tabitha's team is examining the relationship between climate and the pattern of huckleberry growth, flowering, and number of berries in a given year. She is also exploring the relationships between pollinators and insect pests, and huckleberry development. Citizen science opportunities are also being developed to collect phenology (seasonal changes in plants) and productivity data on huckleberries, with the goal of developing predictive maps/forecasts of berry productivity.

For more information on climate change impacts on bear foods, please see:

http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/staff/graves/research/climate_bearfoods

#WomeninScience #GlacierNationalPark#huckleberries #pollinators #phenology