Pollinator Community Compositions Across Four Subalpine Plant Species

Abstract

Studies have shown that there have been pollinator declines occurring worldwide (e.g., Beismiejer et al. 2006; Potts et al. 2010; Burkle et al. 2013; Goulson et al. 2015). It is important to understand plant-pollinator interactions as thoroughly as possible, including which species are interacting with each other, to understand the possible consequences that may follow these declines. which prompts a number of problems considering their importance in plant reproduction. The primary objective of this study was to explore the variation in pollinator visitation rates and community composition across four subalpine species that bloom sequentially throughout the summer growing season. This study was conducted at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) located at Gothic, Colorado. Timed pollinator observations of various patches of four subalpine plant species, Delphinium nuttallianum, Hydrophyllum fendleri, Erigeron speciousus and Potentilla pulcherrima, throughout their flowering periods between June and early August showed that pollinator communities are composed by visitation rates, alpha-diversity, and beta-diversity. This information will provides basic information on the type and frequency of visiting pollinators over time and across plants with their various shapes, blooming times, colors, and elevation. The secondary objective of this study was to create an understanding of how pollinator exclusion bags affect studies in which the bags are used to simulate decreased pollination. Observations were made as the ones previously mentioned of plots that have the same four plants with some flowers covered by pollinator exclusion bags compared to plots with no bags. These plots are under the Iler-CaraDonna study looking at the effect of pollinator declines on plant reproduction. This secondary objective showed that there does not appear to be an effect of the pollinator exclusion bags on pollinator foraging behavior. DeLira: POLLINATOR COMMUNITY COMPOSITIONS ACROSS FOUR SUBALPINE PLANT SPECIES 3