It has been suggested that anthropogenic climate change may greatly influence plant communities, particularly at high elevations. We asked whether climate change and/or elevation gradient influence volatile intra-plant communication for purposes of anti- herbivory resistance and whether air contact

As well-studied, annual species inhabiting an environment with a short growing season, the bumble bees (Bombus spp.) in the area around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) near Crested Butte, Colorado, provide an ideal system for monitoring climate change. In 1974, Graham Pyke conducted

Climate change is creating the opportunity for various species to undertake range expansion, both geographically and elevationally. There has been relatively little research into the ecological effects of these climate-driven range expansions on predators, particularly when the new species to a comm

Differences between individuals are often not accounted for in studies using plant functional trait data. Variation due to biotic and abiotic conditions is common for many plant traits that are crucial for fitness and survival. However, functional trait methods usually do not account for differences

Estimates of species richness, while useful and common to many subdisciplines of biology, are problematic in their reliance on adequate sampling effort. How much sampling is required for an accurate estimate of species richness, and what levels of sampling will render communities comparable? This st

In this study we attempted to discover some of the possible plant responses to global climate change, to assess plant responses we used two plant leaf functional traits: leaf maximum assimilation rate of CO2 (Amax) and Specific Leaf Area (SLA). To evaluate increasing temperature we used a natural el

With the current climate changes occurring globally, it is important to learn about how species distributions will react in the future. Questions have arisen as to whether species, including conifers, exist in a single or multiple climate envelopes which are described by their current distributions.

Nuisance blooms of the stalked diatom Didymosphenia geminata have become an increasing concern worldwide, yet little is known about their effect on stream food webs. We investigated the effects of D. geminata blooms on stream invertebrates of the East River in the western Rocky Mountains. Areas with

Global warming, and exacerbated warming temperatures with humane activity, could impose novel conditions on the lives of many organisms. Of those, the behaviors and diets of solitary bees face adaptive stress as their optimal foraging conditions and preferred floral resources fluctuate. Trap nests m

Antipredator behavior is influenced by many factors including group size. Group size effects are seen when animals in larger social groups allocate less time to antipredator vigilance while foraging, but group size alone does not capture the diversity and complexity of sociality and behavior. An ind

Coexistence among species can occur in a variety of ways through niche partitioning. Two major niche components for many organisms are temperature and soil moisture and variation in these may occur with habitat heterogeneity. Near Gothic, Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, there a

Floral traits and nectar production of Ipomopsis aggregata were measured in response to water and phosphorus treatments applied to two morphotypes. Typical morphotypes underwent water and phosphorus treatments. Because stunted floral traits may be a response to drought stress, only water treatments