Many plants have evolved nutrient rewards to attract pollinators to flowers, but most research has focused on the sugar content of floral nectar resources. Concentrations of sodium in floral nectar (a micronutrient in low concentrations in nectar) can vary substantially both among and within co-occu

In ecological speciation, incipient species diverge due to natural selection that is ecologically based. In flowering plants, different pollinators could mediate that selection (pollinator-mediated divergent selection) or other features of the environment that differ between habitats of two species

In western North America, hummingbirds can be observed systematically visiting flowers that lack the typical reddish color, tubular morphology, and dilute nectar of "hummingbird flowers." Curious about this behavior, we asked whether these atypical flowers are energetically profitable for hummingbir

Premise of the StudyOrganisms engage in multiple species interactions simultaneously. While pollination studies generally focus on plants and pollinators exclusively, secondary robbing, a behavior that requires other species (primary robbers) to first create access holes in corollas, is common. It h

Many animal signals are complex, often combining multimodal components with dynamic motion. To understand the function and evolution of these displays, it is vital to appreciate their spatiotemporal organization. Male broad-tailed hummingbirds (Selasphorus platycercus) perform dramatic U-shaped cour

Many plants that bear hidden or recessed floral nectar experience nectar robbing, the removal of nectar by a floral visitor through holes pierced in the corolla. Although robbing can reduce plant reproductive success, many studies fail to find such effects. We outline three mechanistic hypotheses th

In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, changes in the availability of floral resources through the growing season may affect the ability of bumble bee colonies to successfully complete their life cycle and produce reproductive individuals in the season’s end. A way bees could potentially deal with this

Because phenology and climate are linked, studying the consequences of shifting phenology can help scientists understand the systems that make up current climates and construct future ones. In the Rocky Mountains, climate change has led to earlier snowmelt, an event that triggers the start of the gr

Pollinator-mediated selection cannot explain why flower colour polymorphisms exist in self-pollinating plants. There is a tight link between plant stress response and anthocyanin pigment production, which means that abiotic stress, such as UV radiation or drought, and biotic stress, such as herbivor

A previous study conducted at RMBL has found that road dust affects wildflower pollination and reproduction, this study included Ipomopsis aggregata. In 19 of 20 independent tests wildflowers carried less pollen on their stigmas in dusty conditions, but their seed sets were not consistently affected

Hemiparasites such as those in the genus Castilleja have important effects on the plant communities they are found in. For example, hemiparasitic plants may reduce the abundance of dominant plant species, opening niche space for sub- ordinates. This effect may be driven by direct parasitism of Casti

The Rocky Mountains are one of the world’s most diverse areas in all of Western United States. Like most wonders of the world, the Rocky Mountains are also subjected to unpaved roads, and these roads often produce fine particulates of dirt that are able to rise into the air with ease. In this study,

Mutualistic interactions between flowering plants and bees are a pairwise interaction, but exist in a network of similar interactions (Bronstein, 2001). The outcomes of these interactions differ, for example, the costs and benefits for flowering plants caused by floral visitors (Bronstein, 2001). Lu

Nectar robbing is a process used by various insects to retrieve nectar from flowers that would otherwise be inaccessible. The community-level consequences of nectar robbing have not been widely studied, and the differences between primary and secondary robbing have been studied even less. Fitness co

In order to understand the ecological and evolutionary significance of plant-pollinator mutualisms, it is critical to first comprehend the fluctuating and complex nature of plant- pollinator interactions. Specifically, it is important to realize how these interactions respond to changes in factors s

We found that the Broad-Tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) exhibits significant intraspecies variation across several morphological traits, including those important in foraging. However, the effects of these morphological variation on flower visitation is not well understood. To begin to

Nachev et al (Reports, 6 January 2017, p. 75) present dilute nectar in bat-pollinated plants as "paradoxical" because bats prefer concentrated nectar, but paradox disappears with realistic assumptions about nectar evolution. We argue that they make unrealistic assumptions about the cognitive abiliti