For the past four years, plant biologist Elsa Godtfredsen has trekked to a subalpine meadow in Colorado to study the interactions between wildflowers and bumblebees. The pollinators buzz among fields of purple delphinium and columbine, an iconic image of spring in the Rocky Mountains.
Godtfredsen works at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, a research center set amid evergreens and jagged granite peaks in Gothic, Colorado. Each spring and summer, they track four species of wildflowers from bloom to seed set, using this data to model the impact of climate change on these plants and their pollinators.
“Subalpine and alpine ecosystems are changing rapidly,” Godtfredsen said. “We’re trying to see if these species can persist in ecosystems that are going to continue changing unless we see drastic shifts in policy.”
As winters get warmer, snow in alpine and subalpine regions melts earlier, causing a timing mismatch where flowers bloom before bumblebees emerge from diapause, or insect hibernation. Without... Read more
