Comparative study on pollinator visits to high elevation plant communities in Virginia Basin, Gothic, Colorado

Abstract

Plant-pollinator networks are intricate systems that can give insight on a location’s biodiversity and response to environmental changes. By studying pollination networks at different elevations, researchers can evaluate how varying environmental conditions influence how plant and pollinator species interact with one another. In this project, I assessed two plant- pollinator communities in the Virginia Basin at 3500m and at 3350m. Plant-pollinator interactions were recorded by sampling 20x1m transects at each site while censusing flower abundance for five weeks during the summer of 2021. When looking at the overall abundance of flowers at both sites there was no difference between sites abundance or mean visitation per abundance. However, when analyzing the plant species found at both site there was a significant difference between the mean visitation, with plants at the mid site receiving more visits. This difference may be due to harsh conditions at the higher site or the greater plant diversity there, which results in the dilution of visits to each plant species. Further studies could look into how other factors like weather variables and climate change affect these plant-pollinator communities.

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