Effects of Microclimate Variation on Diversity of Plants and Pollinators

Abstract

High alpine ecosystems have heterogeneous topography that provides microclimatic niches for species to inhibit. Due to climate change, alpine ecosystems are experiencing shifts in snowpack amount, snowmelt timing, and growing season lengths resulting in phenological and abundance responses within ecosystems. Although previous studies have focused on various microclimatic effects on plant communities, there is less known about the effect of snowmelt timing on floral abundance and pollinator diversity. This study investigates the effects of microclimate variation on diversity of plants and pollinators. We performed plant phenology and pollinator surveys along two established 50 meter transects at our Judd Falls and Snodgrass sites. Each transect was divided into 2 meter by 2 meter plots, which were observed twice a day for plant and pollinator interactions for a duration of 2 minutes. We found that although plant richness was higher on high microclimate heterogeneity transects, observed pollinator richness and floral abundance was not higher on high heterogeneity transects. However, transects with higher floral abundance had higher pollinator richness, suggesting that bees are responding more strongly to floral abundance than diversity. Our findings are relevant to understanding how microclimate variation is affecting plant and pollinator responses to climate change.

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