Floral resources available to pollinators are highly variable throughout the flowering season and across landscapes. Pollinator abundance and activity is contingent on floral resources, and both phenological and spatial heterogeneity of flowers can impact pollinator foraging behavior from local to landscape scales. Climate change has been shown to alter plant species’ flowering phenology independently, which can cause pollinators to interact with novel floral communities.
Results/Conclusions
Our preliminary results from a study conducted along a transition zone from subalpine sagebrush into alpine fellfields in the White Mountains, California, have shown that pollinator visitation and activity are significantly positively influenced by floral abundance (p<0.001) and floral diversity (p<0.001). These results indicate that the temporal and spatial composition of flowers impact pollinator behavior, a trend which could scale up to influence plant reproductive success and pollinator nutrition. As climate change continues to advance flowering phenology and decrease diversity, pollinator foraging behavior has the potential to both mediate and damage plant and pollinator communities’ viability.