\u00a0Katahdin Arctic butterfly<\/a>, or breed only here, like the American Pipit.<\/p>\nThere are only about 50 square miles of alpine ecosystem in the Northeast, Tourville said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes it the rarest ecosystem type in the region,\u201d Tourville said. \u201cWe suspect that because they\u2019re so small, and because the plants there are already existing really at the edge of what plants can withstand, that any amount of change will destroy this system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across Maine\u2019s six studied alpine summits \u2014 Katahdin and North Brother in Baxter State Park and Sugarloaf, Bigelow, Saddleback and Mount Abraham in the Longfellow Range \u2014 greenness expanded over the four-decade study period, but not at the same pace.<\/p>\n
While Katahdin clocked a 7.9% greening trend, the average greening rate of all the peaks studied was 5.2%. Records show a 5.8% increase at North Brother at Baxter, a 5% increase at Sugarloaf, a 4.8% increase at Saddleback and a 4.7% increase at mounts Bigelow and Abraham.<\/p>\n
Ground mapping on Katahdin shows that greening is hitting alpine sedge meadows particularly hard. The windswept lawns of Carex bigelowii appear to be undergoing invasion by the woody dwarf heath shrubs that thrive in warmer temperatures and higher nutrient levels.<\/p>\n
Baxter State Park officials acknowledged that the shift is a serious concern. They have been collaborating with other researchers to map Katahdin\u2019s alpine plant boundaries, monitor trail corridors and track shrub encroachment into sedge meadows, according to park manager Kevin Adam and natural resources director Nava Tabak.<\/p>\n
Strict \u201cstay-on-trail\u201d policies, supported by visitor quotas, summit stewards, signage and string fencing are the park\u2019s most vital tools to help the fragile root systems withstand atmospheric stresses, Adam and Tabak said.<\/p>\n
But researchers suspect warming temperatures are hardly the only environmental force at play.<\/p>\n
The greening trend accelerated through the 1980s and 1990s before flattening around 2005 to 2009, a trajectory that aligns with ecological recovery following federal Clean Air Act regulations that curbed acid rain and sulfur pollution across New England peaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people focus on temperature, but I think we missed the nitrogen signal,\u201d Tourville said. \u201cThe soils in the alpine zone are extremely nitrogen poor. For decades, we essentially dumped nitrogen fertilizer up there. That probably had a pretty profound impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topography and severe weather also shape the landscape. Sheltered east- and north-facing slopes across the region\u2019s peaks showed rapid greening, but exposed ridges seem to have resisted plant expansion.<\/p>\n
For park stewards, the 40-year satellite record provides a crucial baseline to guide future conservation. But it also highlights a fundamental disagreement over how to manage wilderness in an era of global climate change.<\/p>\n
Tourville argued that traditional, hands-off wilderness management may no longer be enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message to them was, it might be time in the near future to rethink that stance in terms of hands-off, no management up in the park, especially in the alpine zone, because climate change does not respect park boundaries,\u201d Tourville said. \u201cAnd climate change is not hands-off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baxter State Park leadership firmly defended the park\u2019s \u201cForever Wild\u201d mandate, arguing direct human intervention is not the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur response to stressors from climate extremes, as illustrated by this research, is to continue to minimize human impacts so that the natural communities and species have the best chance to adapt,\u201d Adam and Tabak said in an emailed statement. \u201cThough our approach to stewardship of the Park\u2019s alpine areas is unique, these areas may over time serve as an experimental control that can be compared with other northeastern alpine areas that are more directly managed.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Penelope Overton can be reached at poverton@pressherald.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High above the tree line on Katahdin, where biting winds and sub-zero winters hold the rocky landscape in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,361452,79],"class_list":["post-877920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-katahdin","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}