Global climate change can disrupt ecosystems by impacting the interactions between organisms. I investigated the impact of early snowmelt and warming on the dioecious perennial herb Valeriana edulis, as well as their indirect effects on the aphid species Aphis valerianae and the ants that tend the a

Species distribution modeling is a powerful ecological tool that combines remotely sensed data with known presence locations to yield habitat suitability predictions that can be applied to a variety of hypotheses and conservation planning efforts, and can also be used on a smaller scale to examine i

Pollinators are attracted to flowers based on the sensory information they gather concerning the flower they pollinate, and decide to visit the flower, or not. Closely related plants have similar traits because of their similar genetics, and consequently will attract similar pollinators. The abundan

Due to climate change, wildflowers are blooming earlier and earlier and suffering lower reproductive success. There are two general, non-mutually-exclusive hypotheses about why this lower reproductive success may be occurring. One is that plants are blooming before their pollinators and therefore ar

Didymosphenia geminata, a stalk-producing diatom has increased in frequency worldwide. The nuisance stalks that D. geminata forms, may create an environment preferable to oligochaetes such as Tubifex tubifex. Previous studies have shown that oligochaetes abundance is higher in areas with higher perc

To date there are few studies that have carefully studied the impact that varying pollen quantity and proportion of heterospecific pollen has on reproductive rate of a flowering plants. My project aimed to assess the relationship between pollen quantity and composition on the subalpine larkspur, Del

Abiotic stressors can affect organisms both directly and indirectly by causing behavioral changes and altering species interactions. Metal pollution caused by mining activities is a major stressor on freshwater ecosystems, particularly affecting macroinvertebrate communities. Historical mining has l

Defining the mechanisms that enable species to coexist is a fundamental goal of community ecology. Attention to this question has traditionally focused on antagonistic species interactions, namely competition and predation, as controls on species coexistence. However, positive species interactions m

Nearly every aspect of a butterfly’s life is dependent on flight. Flight metabolic rate (FMR), which is the amount of CO2 produced during flight, serves as an indicator of flight capacity and performance. High flight metabolic rate has been found to be correlated with greater dispersal distance, and

Over the next century the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other contributing greenhouse gases is predicted to generate an average increase in temperature 1-6˚C (Saavedra et al., 2003; Cleland et al., 2012). The proposed warming climate suggests a common myth of global warming th

Across all species, biparental care is an atypical and intriguing adaptation. Burying beetles, (Coleptera: Silphidae) exhibit a large range of biparental care to offspring, involving the upkeep of their sole food source, direct feeding to larvae, and protection of the brood from a wide variety of in

Characterizing the factors that determine the geographic range limits of species is a major goal of ecology. Historically, abiotic factors (e.g. light environment) have been the focus of research of species geographical distributions. While recent work has shown that pairwise species interactions (e

The structure of native bee assemblages and the nature of spatial variation of pollinator populations have direct effects on the reproductive success of plant species across their ranges and floral evolution. It is possible that changes in regional temperatures and precipitation are shifting foragin

We examined how ectoparasites affect body condition and other traits that indicate individual health in mountain white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha; hereafter, MWCS). We also investigated the factors that potentially influence susceptibility to ectoparasites in the MWCS populati