Research trends in U.S. national parks, the world's “living laboratories”

Abstract

U.S. national parks are essential public assets for preserving natural and cultural resources and for decades have provided natural laboratories for scholarly research. However, park research, and how it may be biased, has not been inventoried at a national scale. Such a synthesis is crucial for assessing research needs and planning for the future. Here, we present the first comprehensive summary of national park research using nearly 7,000 peer-reviewed research articles published since 1970. We report when and where these studies occurred, what academic disciplines were most represented, and who funded the research. Our findings show that publication rates increased rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s, but since about 2013 have declined. Over half of the studies occurred in five parks, with Yellowstone representing over a third of all studies, followed by Everglades, Great Smoky Mountains, Glacier, and Yosemite. Nearly half of the studies occurred in the Northwestern Forested Mountains ecoregion. The life sciences, particularly ecological studies, contributed the majority of park research, although the earth sciences dominated several arid ecoregions of the West. Federal agencies funded the largest proportion of research, followed by U.S. universities, non-profit organizations, federal programs (mainly the National Science Foundation), state agencies, and private industry. Over a quarter of the research was supported by international sources. Recent declines in scholarly output suggest that national park research directions and funding opportunities should be examined.