Nicrophorus investigator is a carrion beetle species commonly found near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory that typically involves biparental care when raising a brood. I observed to see if relative size of the parents influenced the behavior and duration of their stay with their brood. There

Understanding the processes and mechanisms that underlie patterns of species diversity and distribution is a fundamental goal of community ecology. Elevational gradients enable ecologists to tease apart ecological drivers and mechanisms as reflected by distribution patterns. In spite of the consider

It is known that sub-alpine meadows experience significant community level changes throughout the spring/summer season due to phenology. In this study we sought to interpret the within- season community-level changes in the sub-alpine meadows of Gothic, CO, USA through the construction of weekly pla

Genetic variation and environmental influences are important drivers of variation in individual traits. Environment is an important selective force in shifting genetic variation as individuals respond to climate change. Climate change has a very strong effect on precipitation which affect many organ

Animals that experience fear or stress may produce alarm calls, fear screams and mobbing calls and by doing so communicate their current state to conspecifics. These sounds are created by often easily identified because they contain nonlinear acoustic attributes that are somewhat acoustically unpred

A trophic cascade is an ecological process in which predators affect the producer biomass and community composition of an ecosystem by limiting plant consumption by herbivores. Predators not only control herbivore populations through predation, but their mere presence can affect herbivore behavior.

Though many prey species use camouflage to escape predation, the role of non-visual camouflage in ecological systems remains understudied, potentially overlooking important mechanisms mediating interactions between species. For instance, some insect prey species use chemical camouflage to pacify pre

Much is known about bee pollination, but there is little information concerning pollination by syrphid flies. Syrphid flies are also important to study because they are the most significant flower visiting Dipteran insects, which are the second most important order among flower-visiting and flower-p

Numerous factors, including climate, resource availability, and habitat diversity, act as determinants of global species diversity. I collected baseline species richness data at three sites along an elevation gradient. Discovery curves indicated that I recorded all species at a site. Interestingly,

Pollinator’s attraction to various species of angiosperms is based upon various sensory outputs. These attractants could be floral/inflorescence size, color, scents or other various types of pollinator attractants. It can be inferred that plants species that are more closely related will have simila

Individuality is defined as the characteristics that determine the differences from one individual in species from another individual of the same species. Many animals use acoustic signals to communicate. These signals send messages about territorial defense, mate attraction and kin-ship. The abilit

Many species produce individually specific vocalizations and sociality is a hypothesized driver of individuality. Previous studies of social variation focused on species that were colonial nesters or not, and social group size in sciurid rodents. If sociality is an important driver of individuality,

True omnivores are animals which feed on both plant and prey sources, allowing them to effect multiple trophic levels within a food web. Ants are well-known omnivores and many participate in honeydew mutualisms with aphids. The western thatching ant, Formica obscuripe, tends the mutualist aphid Aphi

In this study I tested if there is a correlation between bee size and size parameters of flowers the bees visit for pollen. In the plant community evaluated there are not many characteristics restricting the use of pollen by bees. Most of the plants analysed have open corollas and/or present pollen

Hummingbirds are known to select which floral resource to utilize based on visual and olfactory cues. The role that microbes play in mediating the mutualism between hummingbirds and flowers is mostly unexplored in the field of microbial and pollination ecology. Bee pollinators are known to be deterr