Trophic cascades among wolves, elk and aspen on Yellowstone National Park's northern range

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) biomass has declined in Yellowstone Nat ional Park (YNP) in the past century. We installed permanent belt transects (plots) for long-term monitoring of aspen stands both within and outside o f established wolf pack territories on YNP's northern range to determine if reintroduced wolves are influencing elk browsing patterns and aspen regene ration through a trophic cascades interaction. Wolves may have an indirect effect on aspen regeneration by altering elk movements, browsing patterns, and foraging behavior (predation risk effects). Elk pellet groups, aspen su cker heights, and the percentage of browsed suckers were the variables used to measure differences in aspen stands in high and low wolf-use areas of t he northern range. The aspen stands in the high wolf-use areas had signific antly lower counts of elk pellet groups in the mesic upland steppe and the combined mesic upland steppe and riparian/wet meadow habitat types. Based o n our pellet group results, it appears that elk foraging behaviors may have been altered by the increased risk of predation due to the reintroduction of the wolf. In the riparian/wet meadow habitat type, mean aspen sucker hei ghts were significantly higher in the high wolf-use areas than in the low w olf-use areas. The percentage of browsed suckers in high and low wolf-use a reas showed no significant differences in any of the habitat types. Conside ring the high browsing pressure in YNP aspen stands, it is uncertain whethe r the taller aspen suckers measured in the high wolf-use areas will eventua lly join the aspen overstory. These permanent plots represent a valuable ba seline data set to assess any current and future aspen regeneration respons es to the reintroduction of wolves in YNP. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.