Tracking Great Basin's Rare Alpine Plants, Fifteen Years On

By Kelsey Ekholm, Biological Science Technician, and Meg Horner, Biologist, Great Basin National Park

The four target plants, clockwise from upper left: Pennell beardtongue, Nevada primrose, Nachlinger catchfly and Holmgren's buckwheat. NPS photo by Kelsey Ekholm.

Four rare plants

With the University of Nevada, Reno, and botanist Jan Nachlinger, Great Basin National Park began a project to map where its endemic alpine plants grow now — and where they may grow in future. The surveys looked for four high-elevation forbs of eastern Nevada:

All four are rated At-Risk by the Nevada Natural Heritage Program.

Why now

Fifteen years have passed since the first surveys (2004–2006) — a chance to document changes and model future ones. Like other high-elevation plants, these are especially vulnerable to climate change: they evolved for a narrow set of growing conditions, and there's little higher ground to move to. Past and present data, and models of future ranges, will help the park manage them and understand how climate change could affect alpine ecosystems.

The alpine plant survey crew near Lincoln Peak. NPS photo by Kelsey Ekholm.

The survey

Crews worked through wildfire smoke to survey alpine habitat near Mount Washington, Highland Ridge, Decathon Canyon and Bald Mountain. Wherever a plant was found, they searched a set area for all four species. Finding a tiny Silene — the hardest to spot — usually brought cheers.

A team member on an alpine ridge during the survey. NPS photo by Kelsey Ekholm.

Results so far

The crews surveyed more than 1,300 acres, finding plants both at sites from the first surveys and in new places. More surveys are planned for the next season, to find new sites and test the models' predictions.

Sources

Based on "Detecting and Forecasting Change in High Elevation Species," by Kelsey Ekholm and Meg Horner, The Midden — Great Basin National Park, Vol. 21, No. 2, Winter 2021, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source spells the beardtongue "Pennel" in one caption and "Pennell" in the text.