Book Title: Dynamic Earth Through the Lens of Yellowstone

Book Description

Dynamic Earth through the lens of Yellowstone is a comprehensive introductory text that explores the interaction between four major earth components: the solid earth, the atmosphere, the ocean, and biological communities (including humans). It has a specific focus on climate change, natural hazards, and Earth resources, with emphasis on examples from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This book was created as part of the 2022-2023 Open Pedagogy, Advocacy, and Leadership (OPAL) Faculty Fellowship Program sponsored by the Idaho State Board of Education. The high out of pocket costs associated with required course material can often be a barrier to higher education and ultimately affect student learning outcomes, with many students report foregoing the purchase of textbooks that accompany college courses. This text was developed to provide a freely available and easily accessible Open Education Resource (OER) that is curated to emphasize Earth Systems processes occurring within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Though the text is intended to accompany the Dynamic Earth (GEOL 1100) course at Idaho State University, we hope that other universities or lifelong learners will find this as a useful resource for teaching or learning about geoscience. In addition to some new content, this book this book is primarily a rearrangement and remixture of existing OER works, drawing upon a variety of existing Creative Commons licensed content, as well as material in the Public Domain. The backbone of this text is built upon the excellent OER textbook Physical Geology 2nd Edition, by Steven Earle. Additional chapters that supplement discussion of ecosystems and ecology were remixed from the OER textbook Environmental Biology, by Matthew R. Fisher, and information about the Earth System from the OER textbook Historical Geology, by Callan Bentley, Karen Layou, Russ Kohrs, Shelley Jaye, Matt Affolter, and Brian Ricketts. Additional material that contextualizes the geo-biological processes within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem were compiled from a variety of sources in the Public Domain, primarily web articles published by the United States Geological Survey and the National Park Service. Shared and remixed materials are denoted with attribution when necessary at the bottom of pages.