Hiking up to the next plot…
Our primary research project is an ongoing long-term (8-year) monitoring of wild pollinator populations, floral resources, plant-pollinator interactions, and local climate. Since 2015, we have extensively monitored the abundance and activity of wild bumble bees and floral resource availability at six permanent study sites within the East River Valley at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). Our long-term research aims to address a series of outstanding questions focused on our fundamental understanding of the population and community ecology of plant-pollinator interactions and mutualism. With ongoing monitoring, our project will generate a more mechanistic and predictive understanding of the demographic responses of wild pollinators in the context of pollinator declines and climate change, as well as how and why species interact in nature.