The leaf economics spectrum (LES) describes a major axis of plant functional trait variation worldwide, defining suites of leaf traits aligned with resource-acquisitive to resource-conservative ecological strategies. The LES has been interpreted to arise from leaf-level trade-offs among ecophysiolog

The role that different life-history traits may have in the process of adaptation caused by divergent selection can be assessed by using extensive collections of geographically-explicit populations. This is because adaptive phenotypic variation shifts gradually across space as a result of the geogra

Abiotic and biotic conditions often vary continuously across the landscape, imposing divergent selection on local populations. We used a provenance trial approach to examine microgeographic variation in local adaptation in Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae), a perennial forb native to the Rocky Mountai

As a greater number and diversity of high-quality vertebrate reference genomes become available, it is increasingly feasible to use these references to guide new draft assemblies for related species. Reference-guided assembly approaches may substantially increase the contiguity and completeness of a

Sex chromosomes contribute disproportionately to species boundaries as they diverge faster than autosomes and often have reduced diversity. Their hemizygous nature contributes to faster divergence and reduced diversity, as do some types of selection. In birds, other factors (mating system and bottle

1x consensus Sage-Grouse genome from reference-guided assembly using the Chicken genome as reference. Assembly statistics report is included.

A pervasive idea among pollination biologists is that bees cannot see red flowers. This idea has led many workers to assume that red coloration is an adaptation by which flowers exclude bees as visitors. However, recent empirical and theoretical evidence strongly supports the alternative view, that

Clines across hybrid zones can be produced by several forms of natural selection. We illustrate an approach to studying pollinator-mediated selection in plant hybrid zones, using two species of Ipomopsis (Polemoniaceae) as a model system. We measured visitation to flowers in natural and experimental

Directional and stabilizing selection tend to deplete additive genetic variance. On the other hand, genetic variance in traits related to fitness could be retained through polygenic mutation, spatially varying selection, genotype-environment interaction, or antagonistic pleiotropy. Most estimates of

Alarm calling in group-living yellow-bellied marmots is a form of direct parental care and inclusive fitness, broadly defined, is of little importance for the maintenance of alarm calling.

While sociality has been hypothesized to drive the evolution of communicative complexity, the relationship remains to be formally tested. We derive a continuous measure of social complexity from demographic data and use this variable to explain variation in alarm repertoire size in ground-dwelling s

AbstractParasites can cause a loss of fitness for their hosts, potentially influencing social behaviour patterns of the host that promote or hinder parasite transmission. I studied yellow‐bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) and their ectoparasites to determine if ectoparasites reduce the fitness

We compared patterns of growth in juvenile yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) between 2 years in which precipitation differed, and we determined if mass at entry into hibernation affects over-winter survival. Juveniles exhibited an asymptotic growth pattern with mass gain for a mean of 60

Whether an animal lives alone or in a group may have fitness consequences. Among yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris), fitness is thought to be lower for noncolonial than for colonial females because juvenile survival, as indicated by trapping, is lower. Trapping, however, may not be an acc

The inadequacy of dispersal data obtained directly by traditional methods using population studies of marked individuals is highlighted by comparing the resulting distributions with dispersal estimates obtained by radio-tracking and by using genetic estimates of gene flow.