Judging from two palatable wildflower species whose seed crop and seedling recruitment were greatly reduced near the field station, the coyote–deer–wildflower trophic cascade has the potential to influence plant community composition.

AbstractAlarm calling is common in many species. A prevalent assumption is that calling puts the vocalizing individual at increased risk of predation. If calling is indeed costly, we need special explanations for its evolution and maintenance. In some, but not all species, callers vocalize away from

Events that follow pollination, such as pollen-tube growth and seed maturation, comprise an important phase of angiosperm reproduction. Differential success during this "postpollination" phase may represent phenotypic selection, including sexual selection, or interaction between parents caused, for

Climate change increasingly drives local population dynamics, shifts geographic distributions, and threatens persistence. Gene flow and rapid adaptation could rescue declining populations yet are seldom integrated into forecasts. We modeled eco-evolutionary dynamics under preindustrial, contemporary

Social relationships are composed of both positive (affiliative) and negative (agonistic) interactions, representing opposing effects. Social network theory predicts that positive relationships should be transitive; thus, the friend of a friend is more likely to be a friend. Further, when considerin

SummaryPlants interact simultaneously with both mutualists and antagonists. While webs of plant–animal interactions in natural systems can be highly complex, most interactions can be simplified into those that are either direct (mediated through pairwise interactions) or indirect (mediated through t

The adult demography of a population of Speyeria mormonia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) near Gothic, Colorado USA was studied for four years. Values of demographic parameters, including survival, dispersal and sex ratio, varied yearly, without major changes in density. Shift in sex ratio with constant

Regional sediment budgets provide a useful method for quantifying erosion by large river systems over geologic time scales. The Colorado River (western United States) is well suited for such an analysis because the eroding source (Colorado Plateau) and sediment sinks in transtensional basins of the

Abstract A coupled hydrologic and snowpack stable water isotope model assesses controls on isotopic inputs across a mountainous basin. Annually, the most depleted isotope conditions occur in the upper subalpine where snow accumulation is high, and rainfall is low. Snowmelt isotopic evolution over ti

AbstractSoil respiration is a primary component of the terrestrial carbon cycle. However, predicting the response of soil respiration to climate change remains a challenge due to the complex interactions between environmental drivers, especially plant phenology, temperature, and soil moisture. In th

Aims resembled those of the previously removed dominant species. Decades of empirical work have demonstrated how dominant plant Ecosystem productivity generally increased with N addition: soil species and nitrogen fertilization can influence the structure and carbon efflux was ~50% greater when eith

Group size effects, whereby animals allocate less time to antipredator vigilance as a function of increasing group sizes are widely reported in many taxa, but group size is but one of many social attributes that could increase a individual’s sense of security. Indeed, meta-analyses suggest that grou

In the headwater catchments of the Rocky Mountains, plant productivity and its dynamics are largely dependent upon water availability, which is influenced by changing snowmelt dynamics associated with climate change. Understanding and quantifying the interactions between snow, plants and soil moistu

Colorado Euphydryas editha populations completely isolated from well-studied West Coast populations for at least 7,000 generations show strong phenetic and, at seven of eight loci, genetic resemblance to them. The patterns of allozyme variation are not compatible with the hypothesis that the observe

The Colorado River is a critical source of water supply for 40 million people in nine states spanning two nations in western North America. Overallocated in the 20th century, its problems have been compounded by climate change in the 21st century. We review the basin’s hydrologic and water managemen

Temporal fluctuation in abundance is common in many wildlife populations, but the causes and consequences to population dynamics of these fluctuations remain poorly understood. We used long-term (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(20