Nicrophorus investigator is a carrion beetle species commonly found near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory that typically involves biparental care when raising a brood. I observed to see if relative size of the parents influenced the behavior and duration of their stay with their brood. There

Studying the relationships between plants and insects is important in natural and agricultural communities. It has been shown that plant community composition has an effect on insect pollinators and herbivores. However, these relationships have only been researched independently and no study has com

Understanding the processes and mechanisms that underlie patterns of species diversity and distribution is a fundamental goal of community ecology. Elevational gradients enable ecologists to tease apart ecological drivers and mechanisms as reflected by distribution patterns. In spite of the consider

It is known that sub-alpine meadows experience significant community level changes throughout the spring/summer season due to phenology. In this study we sought to interpret the within- season community-level changes in the sub-alpine meadows of Gothic, CO, USA through the construction of weekly pla

As environments change, natural selection will increasingly favor plasticity, a mechanism by which organisms express variable phenotypes based on their abiotic or biotic environment. While these trends occur in sweeping macroenvironmental or coarse-grain patterns, this variation can also exist on an

Genetic variation and environmental influences are important drivers of variation in individual traits. Environment is an important selective force in shifting genetic variation as individuals respond to climate change. Climate change has a very strong effect on precipitation which affect many organ

Animals that experience fear or stress may produce alarm calls, fear screams and mobbing calls and by doing so communicate their current state to conspecifics. These sounds are created by often easily identified because they contain nonlinear acoustic attributes that are somewhat acoustically unpred

Competition and habitat selection have been great topics for ecologists for decades and play a vital role in the study of ecology. In order to avoid competition, organisms partition their niches. Burying beetles (genus: Nicrophorus) occupy the small carrion niche and use carcasses as their primary r

Pollinators are extremely important in the global ecosystem. Flowers have evolved attractive traits in order to draw these pollinators. Traits like colorful petals draw in pollinators to metabolic rewards such as nectar and pollen, and in return, pollinators transfer pollen between plants. Plants wi

Plants have been migrating into higher elevations in order to cope with the stresses of the changing climate. However, not all plants are capable of migrating as far or as fast as others. This study examines leaf traits of Boechera stricta, a plant with limited migratory capabilities, at different e

Though many prey species use camouflage to escape predation, the role of non-visual camouflage in ecological systems remains understudied, potentially overlooking important mechanisms mediating interactions between species. For instance, some insect prey species use chemical camouflage to pacify pre

This study examined interspecific competition between mountain white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha) and Lincoln’s sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii) through a playback experiment. Interspecific competitive interactions influence avian fitness by affecting the distribution of species

Noisy, unpredictable sounds are often present in the vocalizations of fearful and stressed juvenile animals across many taxa. A variety of structural characteristics, called nonlinear acoustic phenomena, which include subharmonics, rapid frequency modulations, and deterministic chaos are responsible

Much is known about bee pollination, but there is little information concerning pollination by syrphid flies. Syrphid flies are also important to study because they are the most significant flower visiting Dipteran insects, which are the second most important order among flower-visiting and flower-p

Many studies have demonstrated the negative effects of hemiparasites on host performance, such as decreased host biomass and reproductive capabilities. Much less work, however, has examined the role of hemiparasites in shaping plant community structure, though it has been proposed that the effect of

Play has been defined as apparently functionless behavior, yet since play is costly, it must have some function (or functions) to outweigh its costs. We provide the strongest evidence for a long-standing, but poorly supported hypothesis: that early play is practice for later dominance relationships.

The western jumping mouse, Zapus princeps is common in riparian habitat. There are multiple hypotheses (need for water, food type, or anti-predator/cover) for why this is. The objective of this project was to determine the use of mesic and adjacent drier habitats by Zapus using both a live-trapping