Factors influencing floral traits in Rocky Mountain meadows: competition, environmental filtering, and phylogeny

Abstract

There is an incredible diversity of floral morphologies and colors within plant communities of the southwestern, Rocky Mountains. However, little research has been done to quantify exactly how diverse these communities are, and to assess which ecological and phylogenetic processes are structuring this diversity. In an observational study, I measured floral traits within five distinct plant communities near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic CO. Traits relevant to pollinator interaction with flowers (i.e. display size, corolla depth, etc.) were measured for all biotically-pollinated flowering plants. For all species observed at each site on five sampling days, seven structural traits (height of inflorescence above the ground, flower length, width and height, and floral display length, width and height) and sixty color traits (three color spectra from 300-700nm binned at 20nm intervals) were measured. By considering species traits in a multidimensional trait space, I compared the degree of clustering or overdispersion of species within communities to null communities constructed from the total species pool. At each of the five sites sites, species traits were significantly phenotypically overdispersed (p < 0.05) with respect to the null expectations. This suggests that competition for pollinators or ecological sorting mechanisms may be driving the diversity of floral morphologies within Rocky Mountain meadow communities. Future work will identify the specific traits driving the overdispersion pattern, and will explore the role of phylogeny in structuring these communities.

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