Hiking up to the next plot…
Flower color is central to plant-pollinator interactions, but several outstanding questions remain. How do floral colors vary geographically, i.e. across elevations or between habitats? What are the roles of abiotic agents (e.g. climate) and biotic agents (e.g. pollinators) in shaping floral colors within communities and across gradients? Has climate change shifted the timing or composition of floral colors presented to pollinators? The proposed research will attempt to answer these and other questions by expanding a database of floral spectra from flowering species in the RMBL area. This database can be used to estimate both 'raw' and pollinator-relevant measures of color for each plant species, which in turn can be connected to other RMBL datasets and ongoing experiments (e.g. phenology datasets, vegetation surveys) to answer the specific questions.