LTREB: Phenological responsiveness of plants and bees: consequences for species, interactions, community composition and biomass

植物和动物的生存和繁殖依赖于季节性事件的正确时间。例如，花需要在霜冻不会杀死它们并且蜜蜂会拜访它们的时候开花，而蜜蜂需要在有花的时候开始飞行。众所周知，气候（温度，雨或雪）可以改变这些重要事件的时间（或“物候”），并且不同的物种以不同的量改变它们的时间。人们对这些对气候反应的差异如何影响物种繁衍的能力知之甚少。当雪融化得更早时，开花时间变化更大的植物物种是否比变化较少的植物更常见？蜜蜂活动和植物开花的时间会发生如此大的变化，以至于它们错过了相互作用吗？这类问题的答案对于预测自然界中的植物和动物在未来将如何变化以及管理我们赖以为生的农作物都很重要。落基山生物实验室物候学项目保持着世界上最长的植物和昆虫活动时间的详细记录。这些记录，以及对植物生长的新测量，将用于了解开花时间和蜜蜂活动随气候的变化如何影响植物和蜜蜂的成功。该项目还对中小学科学教师和大学生进行研究培训，并为儿童和成人提供科学讲座。该项目对气候（每日）和开花时间进行了详细测量（每周三次）在科罗拉多高山草甸的36个永久性地块中对所有植物物种进行长达46年的观察，以及11年来附近草地上所有蜜蜂物种的丰度（每隔一周）。展望未来，该项目将测量所有植物物种的相对丰度和植物群落的生产力。有了这些新数据，该项目将解决三个问题：（1）植物或蜜蜂物种的物候反应是否解释了物种丰度的差异，丰度的年度变化，或极端天气事件后的恢复力？(2)每个蜜蜂公会所使用的植物的物候反应如何影响蜜蜂群落？(3)当地群落中植物的性状是否与群落对气候的反应（如物种丰富度的变化）或生态系统的反应（如生产力）有关？该项目还将继续向科学界提供其长期数据集，这些数据集被美国和国外的研究团体使用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Plants and animals depend on the correct timing of seasonal events for survival and reproduction. For example, flowers need to bloom when frosts won’t kill them and bees will visit them, and bees need to begin flying when flowers are available. It is well known that climate (temperature, rain or snow) can change the timing (or “phenology”) of these important events, and that different species change their timing by different amounts. Little is known about how these differences in responses to climate will influence the ability of species to thrive. When the snow melts earlier, do plant species with greater shifts in flowering time become more common than plants that change less? Could the timing of bee activity and plant flowering change so much for that they miss interacting? Answers to these kinds of questions are important for predicting how plants and animals in natural areas will change in the future, and for managing the crop plants we depend on for food. The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Phenology Project maintains the world’s longest detailed record of the timing of plant and insect activity. These records, together with new measurements of plant growth, will be used to understand how changes in the timing of flowering and bee activity with climate affect plant and bee success. The project also trains elementary and high school science teachers and college students in research, and provides science talks for children and adults.The project has detailed measurements of climate (daily) and the timing of flowering (three times per week) for all plant species in 36 permanent plots in high mountain meadows in Colorado for up to 46 years, and the abundance of all bee species (every other week) in nearby meadows for 11 years. Going forward, this project will measure the relative abundance of all plant species and productivity of the plant community. With these new data, the project will address three questions: (1) Does the phenological responsiveness of plant or bee species explain differences in species' abundances, annual variation in abundance, or resilience after extreme weather events? (2) How does the phenological responsiveness of the plants used by each bee guild influence bee communities? (3) Are the traits of plants in a local community related to community-level responses to climate such as changes in species richness, or ecosystem responses such as productivity? The project will also continue to provide its long-term datasets, which are used by research groups across the US and abroad, to the scientific community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.