Alpine ecosystems are disassembling and reassembling due to climate change. The phenology of alpine plants has shifted, but empirical evidence for how spatial clustering patterns could impact this shift is lacking. This study investigated the phenology of spatially clustered versus isolated alpine p

As global climate change responses are increasingly observed, theories in macroecology are being tested in order to up-scale species richness data to estimate extinction rates under habitat loss or degradation due to land use and climate change. Insight into effects that anthropogenic warming can ha

In this study I examined the effects of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation to light environment in the crucifer Cardamine cordifolia, at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, in Gothic, Colorado. Previous work by Louda and colleagues showed that plants in sun environments were subject to

Dispersal is the permanent relocation of an individual away from its natal burrow. This phenomenon is male biased in many mammal species and potential causes include inbreeding avoidance or resource competition. In this study, the dispersal behavior and exploratory excursion distances were recorded

Behavioral syndromes are widespread and can have important ecological consequences, since correlations between distinct behaviors shape how animals can respond to changing pressures and can limit behavioral plasticity. Various antipredator behaviors have been identified within behavioral syndromes i

Solitary mason bees in the family Megachilidae are known to be important pollinators worldwide. They are important pollinators of natural ecosystems and also are widely used for the commercial pollination of crop plants such as almonds, cherries, peaches, plums, and apples. Given that they are such

Foraging Red-naped sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) displayed a clear preference for interior willow branches branches (80% of all total wells) over exterior branches, and for east-facing branches (62% of all total wells) over west-facing ones. Interior branches were most likely favored because of

Black sage aphids, Obtusicauda frigidae, are infected by the bacterial endosymbiont Hamiltonella defensa. The bacteria confers a resistance to parasitism by the solitary endoparastic wasp Aphidius ervi. The bacteria also confers a number of other advantages to the aphids. Despite the number of advan

Gynodioecy is a dimorphic breeding system in which male sterile individuals coexist with hermaphroditic individuals in the same populations. In order for female plants to be maintained within these populations, considering that they do not achieve fitness through male function, they must have a fitn

Disease progresses differently in varying environments. In coevolutionary interactions, species that interact frequently may adapt to their environment and to each other in a process called local adaptation. However, there may be trade-offs between adapting to the environment and to a coevolving par

Recent blooms of Didymosphenia geminata in streams around the world where they had never been recorded before has generated new interest in the biology and ecology of this diatom. The species is often found in oligotrophic mountain streams where phosphorus limitation may determine productivity. Exce