Asking the pikas politely…
Due to the rapid creation and distribution of synthetic fertilizers, the amount of reactive nitrogen entering the atmosphere has significantly increased, leading to larger amounts of nitrogen deposition across the earth. Nitrogen deposition is an important problem, and a significant driver of global change, yet its impacts on plant-pollinator communities are largely unknown. These communities are exceptionally valuable for their ecosystem services, with pollination services being valued at billions of dollars per year, and also serve to stabilize their greater ecosystems. In spite of this importance, little is known about the impacts of long term, low level nitrogen addition on them. Here, we focused on the impacts of long term nitrogen addition on plant floral traits in four common forbs at a long term nitrogen addition experiment in Almont Triangle State Wildlife Area in montane southeastern Colorado. For this study we measured plant height, plant width and flower number, and used Mann Whitney U tests to assess the impact of the treatments on these traits. We found that there was no significant difference in individual plant flower production in nitrogen and ambient plots. However, Eriogonum umbellatum plants in nitrogen treated plots were significantly taller than Eriogonum umbellatum plants in ambient plots. All other plants had non-significant effects on plant height between nitrogen and ambient heights. Eriogonum umbellatum flowers in nitrogen treated plots were significantly larger than ones in ambient plots. Eremogone congesta, Castilleja linariifolia and Achillea millefolium showed no significant difference between plant height or flower size in the ambient and nitrogen treatment plots. Future directions could include looking at other floral traits such as nectar length, flower length and coriolis diameter, and taking into account soil moisture and year-to-year monitoring of drought conditions in Almont Triangle State Wildlife Area.
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