1. Despite a global footprint of shifts in flowering phenology in response to climate change, the reproductive consequences of these shifts are poorly understood. Furthermore, it is unknown whether altered flowering times affect plant population viability. 2. We examine whether climate change-induce

1. Changes from historic weather patterns have affected the phenology of many organisms worldwide. Altered phenology can introduce organisms to novel abiotic conditions during growth and modify species interactions, both of which could drive changes in reproduction. 2. We explored how climate change

Parental environmental effects, or transgenerational plasticity, can influence an individual’s phenotype or fitness, yet remain underexplored in the context of global change. Using the perennial self-pollinating plant Boechera stricta, we explored the effects of climate change on transgenerational a

Aim: Ecologically driven diversification can create spectacular diversity in both species numbers and form. However, the prediction that the match between intrinsic (e.g. functional trait) and extrinsic (e.g. climatic niche) variables may lead to evolutionary radiation has not been critically tested

In the alpine landscape, characterized by high spatiotemporal heterogeneity and barriers, divergent selection is likely to lead to local adaptation of plant populations either through adaptive genetic differentiation or through phenotypic plasticity. The relative importance of these processes has ra

Predicting long-term trends in forest growth requires accurate characterisation of how the relationship between forest productivity and climatic stress varies across climatic regimes. Using a network of over two million tree-ring observations spanning North America and a space-for-time substitution

Anthropogenic environmental change currently threatens to alter resource availability across the planet, likely driving responses by plant species. In the Colorado Rocky Mountains, climate change is expected to decrease soil moisture availability and increased nitrogen deposition is expected to incr

Shifts in the timing of spring phenology are a central feature of global change research. Long-term observations of plant phenology have been used to track vegetation responses to climate variability but are often limited to particular species and locations and may not represent synoptic patterns. S

Mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. vaseyana) covers large areas in arid regions of western North America. Climate-change models predict a decrease in the range of sagebrush, but few studies have examined details of predicted changes on sagebrush growth and the potential impacts

Variability in plant phenological responses to climate change is likely to lead to changes in many ecological relationships as the climate continues to change. We used a 34‐yr record of flowering times and flower abundance for four species (two Delphinium [Ranunculaceae] species and two Mertensia [B

Diptera play a critical role in alpine and subalpine ecosytems, though they are little studied in terms of what guides their timing and abundance. In order to reveal what cues dipteran timing this study was conducted for 24 years, using a Malaise trap to capture the insects, dipteran distributions w

Concerns of the decline of pollinators and their services have recently been raised. While several hypothesis have been studied, such has the shift of flowering phenology so it no longer overlaps with pollinators and habitat fragmentation, this study investigated the decline of the nectar robbing bu

The timing of life history traits is central to lifetime fitness and nowhere is this more evident or well studied as in the phenology of flowering in governing plant reproductive success. Recent changes in the timing of environmental events attributable to climate change, such as the date of snowmel

The headwater basins of Colorado are heavily relied upon for freshwater resources on an annual basis. However, knowledge concerning generation of such resources, and implications of climate change on their availability in the future, is not well understood. Thus, this research has been undertaken to

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