1,559 results — type: Student Paper
How do the effects of herbivory and light gradients impact the overall plant fitness within different environments?
The strength of natural selection on phenotypic traits as a result of herbivory can be measured within and among environments by quantifying spatial variation in fitness and herbivory levels in the different environments. High spatial variation among different light gradients can be expected to caus
Sensitive plant species in the upper Gunnison basin
Self-Similarity in the Distribution of Plant Species Across a Successional Gradient
Valerian edulis is a perennial dicot growing in montane and subalpline regions. It is a polygamo dioecious species and popular host plant for aphids. Because of such characteristics, it was chosen to study the effects of resource allocation dependency. This study examined the specific effects of aph
Characterizing nectar content in wet and dry subalpine meadows during an extreme summer drought
Pollinating bees visit flowers in order to forage for nectar and pollen, their major sources of nutrition. The plant communities that a bee interacts with vary across time and space, as different flower species dominate different habitats. One key driver of the spatial variation in plant communities
Are Hylemya avoiding dusted <i>Ipomopsis aggregata</i> for good reason?
Waser et al. (2016) found that road dust consistently reduces the pollen received by Ipomopsis aggregata flowers but does not consistently reduce seed set. Over three years we tested the hypothesis that the reason undusted plants do not have higher seed sets is that more of their fruits are eaten by
Effect of Keystone Mine runoff on vegetation
The middens of <i>Tamiasciurus hudsonicus</i>: a study of the physical characteristics of twenty middens in the Gothic area
Determining pollinator behavior differences bumblebees and flies.
Pollinator behavior is integral to understanding community network interactions. These interactions can serve as a proxy for community health. This study aims to compare the behavior between bumblebee pollinators and fly pollinators. This will take place around the area of Gothic, CO, at an elevatio
Effects of nectar robbing on the volatile organic compounds and nectar chemistry of intraindividual flowers in <i> Corydalis caseana </i> ssp. <i> brandegeei </i>
Plants are able to change volatile organic compounds in response to herbivory, and these chemicals can communicate with other parts of the same plant and with other plants. Nectar robbers like Bombus mixtus introduce a new microbial community to a flower’s nectar that is different from the one intro
The effect of 3 species of ants on aphid population success and parasitism
Habitat ecology of elk herds in the Alkali Creek Basin, Gunnison County, Colorado
Predictors and Strength of Microclimate Buffering in the Gunnison Valley
Microclimate is an incredibly important factor in understanding how organisms behave and interact with their environment. Microclimate is defined as climate on a very small spatial resolution, referring to areas that may have differing climates than their surrounding macroclimate. Depending on the c
What is the nature of the ant-aphid relationship?
Many aphid species, on a wide variety of plants, are tended by ants. We tested whether the relationship between the ant species Formica obscuripes and an aphid species on rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) was a mutualism and, if so, whether it was obligate or facultative. Using a fully facto
Habitat preference in two sympatric shrews (<i>Sorex cinereus</i> and <i>Sorex vagrans</i>)
The anatomy of a beaver dam
Effects of Light Availability on Aspen Understory Species
Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) is a keystone species found throughout North America. P. tremuloides is a successional species which aids the regeneration of ecosystems after disturbance. However, climate change is altering aspen forest dynamics. Aspen forest die- off in the American Southwest
Larval food plants for <i>Colias alexandria</i>: a survey of the distributions of <i>Lathyrus leucanthus</i> and <i>Vicia americana</i> near Gothic, Colorado
Does stigma-anther separation prevent sexual interference in dwarf bluebells (<i>Mertensia fusiformis</i>)?
Innumerable floral traits have been ascribed adaptive significance via a variety of mechanisms. One such trait is herkogamy, the spatial separation of the stigma and anthers. In self-incompatible plants, herkogamy is thought to reduce sexual interference, defined as any situation in which one sex fu