Estimation of the mating function – how local operational sex ratio affects female reproductive success – of Valeriana edulis. This script includes a simulation of pollen limitation across a range of operational sex ratios.

While environmental factors strongly influence plant growth and reproduction, less is known about environmental effects on sexual selection and sexual conflict. In this study on mixed-mating Collinsia heterophylla we investigated whether soil resource environment affected traits associated with sexu

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

Despite broad consensus on the power of experiments, correlational studies are still important in ecology, and may become more so as spatial studies proliferate. Conventional correlation analysis, however, (1) fundamentally conflicts with the basic ecological concept of limiting factors, and (2) ign

By setting out arrays of potted plants of Penstemon strictus, I tested whether freely foraging bumblebee (Bombus spp.) workers would establish regular foraging routes that reflected the geometry of the array. They did, passing through an asymmetrical array in a pattern that minimized interplant flig

Abstract. 1. Foraging effort can vary among age classes and between the sexes. In many Lepidoptera, young males feed from mud, dung or carrion in a behaviour known as ‘puddling’, whereas females rarely puddle. In at least one species, males transfer sodium gained from puddling to females at mating f

Some plant pathogens attract pollinating insects and thus have the potential to influence the pollination of flowers, just as different flower species can influence one another's pollination. Showy, flower—like pseudoflowers caused by the rust fungus Puccinia monoica on Arabis holboellii (Brassicace

Experiments were conducted to compare the patterns, mechanisms, and costs of predator avoidance behavior among larvae of five species of mayflies that co—occur with the predatory stoneflies, Megarcys signata and Kogotus modestus in western Colorado streams. Mayfly drift dispersal behavior, use of hi

1. In streams, mayflies (Order Ephemeroptera) are at risk from fish feeding visually in the water column. The effect of fish odour on the behaviour of Baetis bicaudatus from a fishless stream and a trout stream was investigated in four large oval tanks supplied with water from the fishless stream.2.

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

Time budgets for 17 behaviors were analyzed for cohort, day-period, season- period and interactions among the main effects for three colonies of yellowbellied marmots in the Upper East River Valley in western Colorado. These effects explained up to 79% of the variation in the behaviors. Marmots allo