What Fuels Yellowstone’s Epic Wildlife Migrations?
Each year, vast herds of bison, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, and bighorn sheep move across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem — one of North America’s most intact and species-rich landscapes. These migrations are iconic.
A central ecological question remains: What fuels them?
Our Yellowstone research program integrates genomics technologies, GPS tracking, remote sensing, and long-term experimentation to understand how wildlife coexist, survive harsh winters, and adapt to changing environments in an era of climate uncertainty.
A central ecological question remains: What fuels them?
Our Yellowstone research program integrates genomics technologies, GPS tracking, remote sensing, and long-term experimentation to understand how wildlife coexist, survive harsh winters, and adapt to changing environments in an era of climate uncertainty.
The Core Scientific Challenge
A pronghorn antelope wearing a GPS collar with her baby at Yellowstone National Park
|
We pose a deeply motivating scientific question:
How does such a diversity of large mammalian herbivores coexist and persist in one of North America’s most extreme environments? Supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award and conducted in partnership with the National Park Service and Yellowstone Herbarium, this work positions Yellowstone as a living laboratory for conservation genomics.
|
From This Flow Three Central Lines of Inquiry
What sustains migration and winter survival?
Using dietary DNA metabarcoding linked to GPS animal-tracking data and plant phenology, we have identified specific plant species that fuel animals across seasons — including during Yellowstone’s harsh winters.
How do so many ungulates coexist?
Yellowstone supports one of the continent’s richest large-herbivore communities. We have evaluated the extent to which species partition their diets, seasonally switch diets, and forage flexibly across spatially structured resource pools.
Our analyses are revealing hidden secrets in animal diets, which do not always align neatly with our preconceived notions about what they need to survive — offering new insight into how food webs are organized across landscapes.
What does the future look like under climatic and policy changes?
Climate change, invasive species, altered fire regimes, and evolving management priorities are reshaping western rangelands in and around Yellowstone National Park. Understanding how foraging ecology connects animals to the diversity of plants they all ultimately depend upon is essential for forecasting resilience — or vulnerability — to future change.
Using dietary DNA metabarcoding linked to GPS animal-tracking data and plant phenology, we have identified specific plant species that fuel animals across seasons — including during Yellowstone’s harsh winters.
How do so many ungulates coexist?
Yellowstone supports one of the continent’s richest large-herbivore communities. We have evaluated the extent to which species partition their diets, seasonally switch diets, and forage flexibly across spatially structured resource pools.
Our analyses are revealing hidden secrets in animal diets, which do not always align neatly with our preconceived notions about what they need to survive — offering new insight into how food webs are organized across landscapes.
What does the future look like under climatic and policy changes?
Climate change, invasive species, altered fire regimes, and evolving management priorities are reshaping western rangelands in and around Yellowstone National Park. Understanding how foraging ecology connects animals to the diversity of plants they all ultimately depend upon is essential for forecasting resilience — or vulnerability — to future change.
Modernizing Ecosystem Monitoring
Our collaboration has helped modernize how the National Park Service monitors wildlife, vegetation, and the food webs that connect them.
Molecular diet analyses have revealed that:
By integrating genomic data with movement and vegetation analyses, we provide managers with mechanistic insight into how wildlife use Yellowstone’s mosaic of habitats year round.
Molecular diet analyses have revealed that:
- Herbivore diets are far more diverse and variable than previously assumed
- Animals do not simply consume the dominant plants visible in grazing lawns
- Seasonal and spatial dietary shifts are striking and animals often utilize unexpected resources to survive
By integrating genomic data with movement and vegetation analyses, we provide managers with mechanistic insight into how wildlife use Yellowstone’s mosaic of habitats year round.
Selected Publications & Media
Machine learning reveals unexpected structure in the diets of Yellowstone herbivores.
PNAS
[Read the Paper] [Media Coverage by the Wildlife Society]
PNAS
[Read the Paper] [Media Coverage by the Wildlife Society]
Dietary diversity and variability linked to movement patterns in migratory ungulates
Royal Society Open Science
[Read the Paper] [Media Coverage in Newsweek]
Royal Society Open Science
[Read the Paper] [Media Coverage in Newsweek]
Story Behind the Science: What Fuels Yellowstone’s Wildlife?
[Read our Post]
[Read our Post]
Public Engagement Through Open Science
From the start, our Yellowstone program has integrated citizen science and student researchers.
Together with Ecology Project International and Yellowstone Forever, participants collaborate with the National Park Service to help collect dung samples from GPS-collared animals for genomic analysis — contributing directly to active research while learning how modern conservation science operates.
Meanwhile, at Brown University, students have an opportunity to enroll in a nationally unique course called Conservation in the Genomics Age in which they collaborate with partners from the National Park Service to analyze, interpret, and report on wildlife diets using modern DNA sequencing techniques.
All analytical pipelines and data products are released through an open-science framework, reinforcing transparency and broad impact.
Together with Ecology Project International and Yellowstone Forever, participants collaborate with the National Park Service to help collect dung samples from GPS-collared animals for genomic analysis — contributing directly to active research while learning how modern conservation science operates.
Meanwhile, at Brown University, students have an opportunity to enroll in a nationally unique course called Conservation in the Genomics Age in which they collaborate with partners from the National Park Service to analyze, interpret, and report on wildlife diets using modern DNA sequencing techniques.
All analytical pipelines and data products are released through an open-science framework, reinforcing transparency and broad impact.
From Diet to Ecosystem Change
|
We have recently established a large-scale, long-term replicated experiment across some of Yellowstone’s most valuable rangelands.
The goal is to connect:
Herbivores do not merely respond to what vegetation is present. Their presence suppresses the growth of some species and can facilitate others. These interactions influence long-term changes in community composition and the nutritional quality of vegetation available to support wildlife. By combining dietary DNA data with experimental manipulation, we have created one of the first integrative frameworks to link individual dietary decisions to landscape-scale vegetation dynamics. |
Hannah Hoff, Brown University Ph.D. candidate, visits one of the experimental plots she helped construct on the northern range of Yellowstone National Park in 2025.
|
The Next Frontier: From DNA to Nutritional Landscapes
The next phase of this program moves from identifying what animals eat to understanding what those diets provide.
We are working to translate dietary DNA sequences into quantitative assessments of nutritional quality. This will allow us to model how changes in habitat, climate, fire regimes, invasive species, or management strategies alter the ecosystem’s capacity to support wildlife.
In practical terms, this means asking:
By converting genomic diet data into nutritional landscapes, we aim to build predictive tools that inform long-term conservation planning in Yellowstone and beyond.
We are working to translate dietary DNA sequences into quantitative assessments of nutritional quality. This will allow us to model how changes in habitat, climate, fire regimes, invasive species, or management strategies alter the ecosystem’s capacity to support wildlife.
In practical terms, this means asking:
- How will altered plant communities affect the energetic balance of migratory herds?
- Which landscapes will remain nutritionally resilient under warming scenarios?
- Where are future bottlenecks likely to emerge?
By converting genomic diet data into nutritional landscapes, we aim to build predictive tools that inform long-term conservation planning in Yellowstone and beyond.
This is Why it Matters
Understanding what fuels migration is not just a fundamental question for ecologists to answer. It is a question of persistence.
As environmental change accelerates across western ecosystems, conservation decisions must be grounded in mechanistic knowledge of how animals interact with the landscapes that sustain them.
Yellowstone offers a rare opportunity: a globally recognized ecosystem where integrative, open, and forward-looking conservation genomics can directly inform stewardship.
As environmental change accelerates across western ecosystems, conservation decisions must be grounded in mechanistic knowledge of how animals interact with the landscapes that sustain them.
Yellowstone offers a rare opportunity: a globally recognized ecosystem where integrative, open, and forward-looking conservation genomics can directly inform stewardship.
Partner in Long-Term Wildlife Ecology & Conservation
Sustained ecological research requires long horizons, trusted partnerships, and a commitment to open science.
Our Yellowstone program is a long-term effort to understand how wildlife, plants, and environmental variability interact in one of North America’s most important ecosystems. Continued support enables us to maintain experimental infrastructure, train the next generation of conservation scientists, and translate genomic discoveries into practical tools for stewardship.
If you are interested in partnering with us — through philanthropy, foundation support, or collaborative research — we welcome the opportunity to connect.
→ Explore partnership opportunities
→ Support long-term research in Yellowstone
Our Yellowstone program is a long-term effort to understand how wildlife, plants, and environmental variability interact in one of North America’s most important ecosystems. Continued support enables us to maintain experimental infrastructure, train the next generation of conservation scientists, and translate genomic discoveries into practical tools for stewardship.
If you are interested in partnering with us — through philanthropy, foundation support, or collaborative research — we welcome the opportunity to connect.
→ Explore partnership opportunities
→ Support long-term research in Yellowstone