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依靠动物传粉者进行繁殖。最近的气候变化可能会破坏这些重要的生态和经济关系。当植物开花和传粉者在春季出现时，与气候变化相关的暖春和早期融雪会发生变化，这可能会使开花过早或过晚的植物无法获得传粉者。此外，减少的积雪覆盖和早期融雪可能会减少山坡生长季节的土壤水分。这样的干旱条件可能会减少花的数量、大小或花蜜的含量，这可能会降低它们对传粉者的吸引力。本研究考察了土壤湿度、花和传粉者出苗时间对传粉的影响。预计干旱将通过改变开花时间和吸引力大大减少授粉。这项工作将有助于揭示植物和传粉者之间的关系如何对气候变化作出反应，并将提高土地管理者和决策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体验。该项目验证了开花时间的差异与水分有效性相互作用影响传粉者来访的组成和数量的假设。利用田间试验方法，研究人员将在亚高山野花Mertensia ciliata的因子实验中操纵开花时间和土壤湿度。他们将通过授粉者的组成和访问次数的变化来测量对授粉和结实率的影响，并将确定这些影响是如何通过花性状的变化来调节的。实验结果将与正在进行的个体、群体和社区对土壤湿度和开花物候自然变化的反应的观察研究相结合。类似的测试非生物和生物变化对植物-传粉者相互作用影响的田间试验很少。然而，这种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，并向公众提供。

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.