LARGE-SCALE CLIMATIC INFLUENCES ON THE GRAND TETON MOUNTAIN RANGE

The extensive loss of high elevation snowpack and glacial ice within the Central Rocky Mountain Range is a distinctive indicator of anthropogenic climate change. Present day climate models are effective in predicting the broad regional trends in montane cryospheric change, but they fail to capture the degree to which the changes in snowpack have been observed in Grand Teton National Park. This project considers the snow to water ratio in the alpine region, temperature fluctuations that drive precipitation phases and snowmelt, stream flow discharge, and geomorphological impacts to the associated fluvial system in order to demonstrate the magnified effects of external forcing. Whereas the overall changes align with GCM models, the magnitude of change is not accounted for. The research question central to this project asks whether large-scale climatic fluctuations can rectify the discrepancy between the predicted and observed phenomena. Here, I hypothesize that the difference in the predicted and observed changes are attributable to recurrent large-scale climatic influences associated with the Pacific North American Pattern (PNA), the el Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).