A new way of supporting field science

In addition to supporting the work of individual scientists through ensuring access to field sites and providing logistical support, RMBL is changing field science by encouraging integrative research. Supported as a RMBL Synthesis Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Rebecca Prather (see accompanying article) and 14 collaborators recently published work utilizing 10,812 observations involving 30 plant, 25 insect, 1 amphibian, 2 mammal, and 16 bird species across 45 years. They looked at the complicated ways that organisms in the same ecosystem have responded to a summer increase of 0.4 °C per decade and a fall temperature increase of 0.2 °C per decade with snowmelt date trending earlier 2.4 days per decade.

Responses depend upon the organism. Earlier snowmelt advanced the annual start of many of the species such as insects that overwinter as larvae, including Mormon fritillary butterflies, burying beetles, Gillette’s checkerspot butterfly, and flies, as well as plants that flower soon after snowmelt, including spring beauty and dwarf bluebell. However, prior summer rain delayed activity of some insect species, had no impact on most plant species, and advanced activity of some amphibian, mammal, and bird species. The complexity of the responses was highlighted by the fact that some responses to environmental cues happened as quickly as in a day or two (e.g., glacier lilies responding to snow melt) whereas other responses were happening as long as 2 years later.