Organisms must often make developmental decisions without complete information about future conditions. This uncertainty for example, about the duration of conditions favorable for growth can favor bet-hedging strategies. Here, we investigated the causes of life-cycle variation in Osmia iridis, a be

Data were collected as part of a study of population dynamics of solitary, cavity-nesting Hymenoptera. Nesting structures ("trap-nests") were established at five study sites along an elevational gradient around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in 2013. Two additional study sites were added i

One possible effect of climate change is the generation of a mismatch in the seasonal timing of interacting organisms, owing to species-specific shifts in phenology. Despite concerns that plants and pollinators might be at risk of such decoupling, there have been few attempts to test this hypothesis

Climate change is expected to alter patterns of species co-occurrence, in both space and time. Species-specific shifts in reproductive phenology may alter the assemblages of plant species in flower at any given time during the growing season. Temporal overlap in the flowering periods (co-flowering)

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

Premise of the Study – Flowering time may influence pollination success and seed set through a variety of mechanisms, including seasonal changes in total pollinator visitation or the composition and effectiveness of pollinator visitors. Methods – We investigated mechanisms by which changes in flower

Climate change is shifting the environmental cues that determine the phenology of interacting species. Plant-pollinator systems may be susceptible to temporal mismatch if bees and flowering plants differ in their phenological responses to warming temperatures. While the cues that trigger flowering a

Prof. Rebecca (Becky) Irwin has been collecting data on the abundance and timing of bees in permanent sites near the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab (RMBL), Gothic, Colorado, USA, from 2009 to present. During the flight season, we use pan traps and netting every two weeks to estimate bee abundance by