Climate change could wipe out Glacier Park bugs

As Glacier National Park’s climate continues to warm, the first creatures that could be extirpated likely won’t be iconic mammals or exotic birds — they could be bugs.

The Park’s melting glaciers are home to the meltwater Lednia stonefly, specifically Lednia tumana, says researcher Scott Hotaling, from the University of Kentucky. Hotaling has been working with National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey staff studying climate change and species genetics in the Northwest, including Glacier Park.

This unique stonefly species lives almost exclusively in meltwater streams below glaciers. The Park does, however, have a small population — about 5 percent — of Lednia that live in cold water alpine streams fed by springs. The stonefly is a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Hotaling said he’d like to continue his study of the stoneflies in the future to see if there’s any genetic variation between the glacial and the spring water stoneflies.

Ice worms are another creature unique to glaciers. They live exclusively on glaciers in coastal regions, not snowpack, and aren’t found in Glacier Park. Ice worms survive almost their entire lives at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, feeding on algae and bacteria. The tiny worms avoid sunlight and come out in the evening and at night.

While it’s easy to think of them as just a worm, Hotaling noted, they could prove useful in human medicine. If scientists can unlock the secret to the worm’s ability to survive at cold temperatures, it could help in preserving human organs for transplant.

Alpine species have few strategies for surviving climate change, Hotaling said. They can migrate, generally moving to higher elevations as the region warms, or exchange genes with other more adapted species, or they can evolve through natural selection, he said.

But some species simply can’t migrate long distances. As a result, populations become isolated over time and inbreeding can occur, reducing genetic variability. And some species are already living at high elevations, so there’s no place for them to go. On top of that, climate change is occurring at such a rapid pace that species may not be able to evolve fast enough to cope, Hotaling said..

Glaciers may look like big blocks of dirty ice, but the reality is they are big biological zones with a diversity of life forms.

“There’s an entire ecosystem up there,” Hotaling noted.