DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Effects of experimental shifts in soil moisture and flowering phenology on plant-pollinator interactions

大多数开花植物和世界上许多粮食作物都依赖动物传粉者繁殖。最近的气候变化可能会破坏这些在生态和经济上具有重要意义的关系。与气候变化相关的温暖的春天和早期的积雪融化改变了植物在春季开花和传粉者出现的时间，这可能会使过早或过晚开花的植物无法获得传粉者。此外，积雪减少和积雪提前融化可能会降低山坡上生长季节的土壤水分。这样的干旱条件可能会减少花朵的数量、大小或花蜜含量，这可能会降低它们对传粉者的吸引力。本研究测试了土壤水分和花朵及传粉者出现的时间对授粉的影响。人们的预期是，干旱将通过花期和吸引力的变化大大减少授粉。这项工作将有助于揭示植物和传粉者之间的关系如何应对气候变化，并将提高土地管理者和政策制定者规划保护工作的能力。该项目还包括让本科生和公立学校教师参与实地研究的机会，以及通过两个K-12外展项目为儿童提供进入科学的门户经验。该项目检验了这样一个假设，即花期的差异与水的可获得性相互作用，影响授粉者的组成和数量。通过实地测试的方法，研究人员将对亚高山野花纤毛菊进行析因实验，以控制开花时间和土壤水分。他们将通过改变授粉者的组成和访花次数来衡量对授粉和结实的影响，并将确定这些影响可能是如何通过花卉性状的变化来调节的。实验结果将与正在进行的个体、种群和社区层面对土壤水分和开花物候自然变化的反应的观测研究相结合。类似的田间实验测试非生物和生物转移对植物-传粉者相互作用的影响的情况很少见。然而，这些实验方法可以为决定授粉系统如何应对气候变化的机制提供重要的见解。该奖项下的所有分析数据将在专业会议上传播，在同行评议的期刊上发表，并向公众公布。

Most flowering plants and many of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. Recent changes in climate may disrupt these ecologically and economically important relationships. Warm springs and early snowmelt associated with climate change alter when plants flower and pollinators emerge in the spring, which may make pollinators unavailable to plants that flower too soon or too late. In addition, decreased snow cover and early snowmelt likely reduce soil moisture during the growing season on mountain slopes. Such drought conditions may decrease the number of flowers, their size or the amount of nectar they contain, which may make them less attractive to pollinators. This research tests effects of soil moisture and timing of flower and pollinator emergence on pollination. The expectation is that drought will greatly decrease pollination through both changes in flowering time and attractiveness. This work will help reveal how the relationship between plants and pollinators responds to climate change, and will improve the ability of land-managers and policy-makers to plan conservation efforts. This project also includes opportunities to engage undergraduate students and public school teachers in field research, as well as providing gateway experiences for children into science through two K-12 outreach programs.This project tests the hypothesis that differences in flowering time interact with water availability to affect the composition and number of pollinator visits. Using field-tested methods, researchers will manipulate flowering time and soil moisture in a factorial experiment with the sub-alpine wildflower Mertensia ciliata. They will measure the impact on pollination and seed set via shifts in the composition and number of pollinator visits, and will determine how those effects may be mediated by changes in floral traits. Experimental results will be integrated with on-going observational studies of individual, population, and community-level responses to natural variation in soil moisture and flowering phenology. Similar field experiments testing the impacts of abiotic and biotic shifts on plant-pollinator interactions are rare. Yet, such experimental approaches can offer vital insights into the mechanisms that determine how pollination systems respond to climate change. All analyzed data under this award will be disseminated at professional conferences, published in peer-reviewed journals, and made publically available.