Glacier Stonefly a Victim of Climate Change

A rare aquatic insect found exclusively in the high-elevation streams of Glacier National Park is vulnerable to extinction because of threats to its rarefied mountain ecosystem posed by climate change, according to a new study by local researchers.

The obscure western glacier stonefly, or Zapada glacier, lives exclusively in cold-water streams fed by Glacier Park’s melting glaciers and snowfields, and a recent study by government researchers in the park links the insect’s survival directly to the fast-declining glaciers.

According to the study, titled “Climate-induced range contraction of a rare alpine invertebrate” and published in the upcoming issue of “Freshwater Science,” loss of glaciers and increased stream temperatures due to climate warming in the stonefly’s alpine habitat is threatening its persistence.

In the study, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey, Bucknell University, and the University of Montana use data spanning from 1960 to 2012 to illustrate habitat range contractions of the western glacier stonefly associated with glacial recession.

The western glacier stonefly is only found in Glacier National Park and was first identified in streams sampled between 1963 and 1979.

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