Alpine Trophic Interactions, Aphids, and Plant-Animal Networks
Investigates how predator-prey dynamics, ant-aphid mutualisms, and plant phenology interact across trophic levels in Rocky Mountain alpine and subalpine ecosystems, with particular attention to how snowmelt timing and climate shifts cascade through food webs.
Knowledge Graph (350 nodes, 1318 connections)
Research Primer
Background
Mountain ecosystems in the Gunnison Basin are woven together by webs of interaction among plants, insects, and vertebrates. A central thread in this web is the set of mutualistic relationships between ants and sap-feeding insects such as aphids and treehoppers. In these associations, the herbivorous insects tap plant phloem and excrete sugar-rich honeydew that ants collect as food; in return, ants protect their partners from predators and parasitoid wasps. Because ants can also prey on the very insects they tend, the cost-benefit ratio of these interactions is fluid, shifting with ant species identity, ant nutritional state, aphid colony size, host plant condition, and weather. Understanding how these shifting partnerships scale up to shape plant reproduction, insect populations, and ultimately the structure of subalpine meadows is the core purpose of research in this area.
Several concepts recur throughout the findings below. A trophic cascade is an indirect effect that travels through a food chain, as when a predator changes the behavior or abundance of an intermediate consumer and thereby alters plants at the base. Trophic-level sensitivity is the idea that organisms higher in the food chain are often more vulnerable to environmental change, such as warming or drought, than the plants they depend on. Sexual dimorphism in plant-insect interactions refers to the fact that, in dioecious species like the subalpine herb Valeriana edulis (valerian), male and female plants can differ in their water use, chemistry, and attractiveness to insects, producing different arthropod communities on each sex. Associative learning describes how ants link chemical cues from plants with food rewards, allowing them to navigate the landscape as foragers. Finally, an aridity gradient, produced by combinations of temperature and precipitation across elevation, structures how strongly each of these interactions plays out.
These concepts matter for the Gunnison Basin because subalpine meadows around Gothic, Colorado are undergoing earlier snowmelt, warmer growing seasons, shifting ungulate and carnivore populations, and rising levels of nitrogen deposition. Each of these pressures can ripple through ant-aphid-plant networks in ways that alter wildflower reproduction and insect abundance, with consequences for land managers, pollinator conservation, and long-term ecosystem monitoring.
Foundational work
The research area was anchored in the late 1970s and 1980s by studies at and around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory that used aphids, ants, and butterflies as tractable systems for testing mutualism theory. Addicott documented how multiple aphid species on fireweed partitioned their host plants and competed for the services of tending ants, showing that ants were a limited and limiting resource and that their effects on aphid populations were density-dependent and species-specific (Addicott, 1978) (Addicott, 1978) (Addicott, 1979) (Cushman & Addicott, 1989). In parallel, Pierce and colleagues demonstrated that ants attending larvae of the lycaenid butterfly Glaucopsyche lygdamus reduced attack by parasitoid wasps, providing one of the clearest early cases of protection mutualism driving the evolution of an insect-ant association (Pierce & Mead, 1981) (Pierce & Easteal, 1986).
The botanical context for these interactions was set by Langenheim's classic description of vegetation and environmental patterns in the Crested Butte area (Langenheim, 1962), and by Bierzychudek and Eckhart's theoretical treatment of how male and female plants of dioecious species can occupy different microhabitats (Bierzychudek & Eckhart, 1988). Later work on gynodioecious Geranium richardsonii showed that female plants trade reduced pollinator attraction for increased seed production (Williams et al., 2000), foreshadowing a broader research program on how plant sex shapes interactions with insects.
Key findings
A central, repeatedly confirmed result is that ant tending of sap-feeding insects is highly conditional. Ants can simultaneously protect and prey on aphids, producing net effects that swing from positive to negative depending on context (Billick et al., 2007). Temporal variability across years often matters more than spatial variability among sites in determining whether a given ant-treehopper partnership is mutualistic (Billick & Tonkel, 2003), and not all ant species are equivalent partners: in Glaucopsyche lygdamus, only Formica podzolica clearly reduced parasitism, while other ant species were neutral or even parasitic on the association (Fraser et al., 2001). A recent synthesis places these patterns in a deep evolutionary frame, showing that ant-hemipteran mutualisms arose independently multiple times and that benefits and costs are inherently context dependent (Nelson & Mooney, 2022).
A second body of work shows that plant sex and plant phenology structure these interactions. Female Valeriana edulis plants support several-fold higher densities of aphids, predators, and ants than males (Mooney lab work, 2013), and aphids preferentially colonize female plants in the field (Perry, 2009). Ant tending and aphid colonization peak sharply during host plant flowering stages on Ligusticum porteri and decline afterward (Mooney et al., 2023) (Kennamer, 2022). Ants themselves behave as botanists, using associative learning to link plant chemical blends with honeydew rewards (Sentner, 2017) (Zapata, 2018) (Nelson et al., 2020), and their willingness to tend aphids depends on their own nutritional state, with protein-fed colonies tending aphids far more than carbohydrate-fed colonies (Petry & Mooney, 2009) (Petry et al., 2012).
Climate and other global-change drivers run through this network in ways that often hit higher trophic levels hardest. Snowmelt date is the single best predictor of year-to-year variation in aphid and predator abundance, with earlier snowmelt reducing aphid numbers by creating water-stressed host plants (Robinson et al., 2017) (Mooney et al., 2020) (Theibault, 2014). Across elevation, ant-aphid mutualism strength declines as conditions cool and aridity decreases, with ants boosting aphid colony survival by 66% at low elevations but having no detectable effect at high elevations (Nelson et al., 2019) (Nelson et al., 2019). In Valeriana edulis, sex-specific water use has driven populations to become more male-biased with warming, shifting at roughly 175 meters per decade (Petry et al., 2016). Meanwhile, chronic low-level nitrogen deposition increases the abundance of ant-protected herbivores on sagebrush (Grinath, 2021) and can dampen trophic cascades from bears through ants to plants (Grinath, 2018). Vertebrates matter too: human activity near the Gothic field station shifts mule deer vigilance and flight behavior at scales of hundreds of meters (Price et al., 2014), and coyotes avoid human-dense areas in ways that feed back to deer and wildflowers (Waser et al., 2014).
Current frontier
Early work in the 1980s and 1990s built the conceptual scaffolding of protection mutualisms and plant sexual systems. Research in the 2000s and 2010s emphasized context dependence, host plant effects, and ant learning. Since 2020, the frontier has shifted toward climate-driven phenology, elevational gradients in interaction strength, and the integration of vertebrate consumers into these insect-plant networks. Recent studies show that host plant phenological stage interacts with temperature to determine aphid colony growth and ant recruitment (Mooney et al., 2023), and that bird predation on insects intensifies with elevation and aridity through behavioral rather than density-dependent mechanisms (Dean et al., 2024). New work on ant community ecology shows that different facets of dominance, behavioral, numerical, and ecological, are not equivalent and predict foraging trade-offs in different ways (Nelson & Mooney, 2025) (Sheard et al., 2020).
At the same time, long-term demographic records for Valeriana edulis are being paired with soil and climate data to ask how sessile plants will track shifting conditions. Soil grain size emerges as a surprisingly strong driver of survival, flowering, and seed production (Boxwell, 2025), density dependence in valerian does not vary systematically with elevation (Davis, 2023), and climate-driven population models can now nowcast species distributions from vital rates (Zeh, 2021). Vertebrate-focused work is extending the network upward: studies of black bear foraging on thatching ant nests (Hunter, 2023), deer browse on Ligusticum porteri (Rittler, 2024), and differential responses of deer, coyotes, and foxes to recreation intensity (Uetrecht et al., 2023) connect insect-plant mutualisms to landscape-scale human impacts.
Open questions
Several questions stand out for the next decade. How will the mismatch between aphid, host plant, and ant phenology develop as snowmelt continues to advance, and will earlier-emerging predators like lygus bugs increasingly dismantle ant-aphid mutualisms before they form? How do chronic nitrogen deposition, warming, and changing ungulate pressure combine, rather than act singly, to reshape trophic cascades in meadows and sagebrush steppe? Can the learning and foraging behavior of individual ant species be used to predict which mutualisms will persist under novel plant chemistries and community compositions? For dioecious plants such as Valeriana edulis, what are the long-term consequences of male-biased sex ratio shifts for seed production, pollinator communities, and the arthropod assemblages that track female plants? And how tightly coupled are vertebrate consumers like bears, deer, and insectivorous birds to the insect mutualisms below them, so that managing recreation, grazing, or predator populations can be connected to conservation of pollinators and wildflowers in the Gunnison Basin?
References
Addicott, J. F. (1978). Competition for mutualists: aphids and ants. Canadian Journal of Zoology. →
Addicott, J. F. (1978). Niche relationships among species of aphids feeding on fireweed. Canadian Journal of Zoology. →
Addicott, J. F. (1979). A multispecies aphid-ant association: density dependence and species-specific effects. Canadian Journal of Zoology. →
Evans (1989). Seed protection by ants foraging on the extrafloral nectaries of the aspen sunflower, Helianthella quinquenervis. →
Petry & Mooney (2009). A balanced diet: effects of ant nutritional state on the balance between mutualism and predation upon aphids. →
Perry (2009). Variation in host plant sex mediates ant-aphid interactions. →
Petry et al. (2012). Influence of macronutrient imbalance on native ant foraging and interspecific interactions in the field. →
Petry et al. (2013). Mechanisms underlying plant sexual dimorphism in multi-trophic arthropod communities. →
Waser et al. (2014). Coyotes, deer, and wildflowers: diverse evidence points to a trophic cascade. →
Theibault (2014). Effects of early snowmelt and climate warming on Valeriana edulis and the insects that depend on it. →
Robinson et al. (2017). Multitrophic interactions mediate the effects of climate change on herbivore abundance. →
Sentner (2017). The ability of ants to associatively learn based on olfactory chemical cues produced by plants. →
Zapata (2018). Are ants botanists?: ant associative learning of plant volatiles. →
Grinath (2018). Short-term, low-level nitrogen deposition dampens a trophic cascade between bears and plants. →
Nelson et al. (2019). Elevational cline in herbivore abundance driven by a monotonic increase in trophic level sensitivity to aridity. →
Nelson et al. (2019). Progressive sensitivity of trophic levels to warming underlies an elevational gradient in ant-aphid mutualism strength. →
Nelson et al. (2020). Are ants botanists? Ant associative learning of plant chemicals mediates foraging for carbohydrates. →
Mooney et al. (2020). Early snowmelt reduces aphid abundance Aphis asclepiadis by creating water stressed host plants. →
Sheard et al. (2020). Testing trade-offs and the dominance-impoverishment rule among ant communities. →
Zeh (2021). Nowcasting the distribution of Valeriana edulis using climate driven population models. →
Bierzychudek, P., & Eckhart, V. (1988). Spatial segregation of the sexes of dioecious plants. American Naturalist. →
Billick, I., & Tonkel, K. (2003). The relative importance of spatial vs. temporal variability in generating a conditional mutualism. Ecology. →
Billick, I., et al. (2007). Ant-aphid interactions: are ants friends, enemies, or both? Annals of the Entomological Society of America. →
Boxwell, (2025). The role of soil in regulating plant performance in Valeriana edulis. →
Cushman, J. H., & Addicott, J. F. (1989). Intra- and interspecific competition for mutualists: ants as a limited and limiting resource for aphids. Oecologia. →
Davis, (2023). Elevation does not predict density dependent population dynamics in Valeriana edulis. →
Dean, et al. (2024). Decomposing an elevational gradient in predation by insectivorous birds. Ecosphere. →
Fraser, A. M., et al. (2001). Assessing the quality of different ant species as partners of a myrmecophilous butterfly. Oecologia. →
Grinath, J. (2021). Chronic, low-level nitrogen deposition enhances abundances of ant-protected herbivores inhabiting an imperiled foundation species. Acta Oecologica. →
Hunter, (2023). Breakfast of champions: spatiotemporal variation in the quality of ant nests for bear consumers. →
Kennamer, (2022). Ant behavioral responses to aphids colonizing Ligusticum porteri. →
Langenheim, J. H. (1962). Vegetation and environmental patterns in the Crested Butte area, Gunnison County, Colorado. Ecological Monographs. →
Mooney, et al. (2023). Host plant phenology shapes aphid abundance and interactions with ants. Oikos. →
Nelson, A. S., & Mooney, K. A. (2022). The evolution and ecology of interactions between ants and honeydew-producing hemipteran insects. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. →
Nelson, A. S., & Mooney, K. A. (2025). Different aspects of dominance are not equivalent when testing for trade-offs in ant communities. Ecology and Evolution. →
Petry, W. K., et al. (2016). Sex-specific responses to climate change in plants alter population sex ratios and performance. Science. →
Pierce, N. E., & Easteal, S. (1986). The selective advantage of attendant ants for the larvae of a lycaenid butterfly, Glaucopsyche lygdamus. Journal of Animal Ecology. →
Pierce, N. E., & Mead, P. S. (1981). Parasitoids as selective agents in the symbiosis between lycaenid butterfly larvae and ants. Science. →
Price, M. V., et al. (2014). Human activity affects the perception of risk by mule deer. Current Zoology. →
Rittler, (2024). Associations between deer browse and aphid colonization in a long-term monitoring study of Ligusticum porteri. →
Uetrecht, et al. (2023). Differential response of three large mammal species to human recreation in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA. Frontiers in Conservation Science. →
Williams, C. F., et al. (2000). Floral dimorphism, pollination, and self-fertilization in gynodioecious Geranium richardsonii. American Journal of Botany. →
Concept (42) →
mutualistic relationships
Mutually beneficial herbivore-predator associations where sap-feeding insects provide honeydew food for ants in exchange for protection against predat...
trophic cascade
Indirect effects of predators on lower trophic levels mediated through changes in intermediate consumer behavior or abundance
facilitative interactions
Positive species interactions such as nurse plant effects by cushion-forming species that increase reproductive success for neighboring plants
trophic synchrony
Temporal alignment between consumer energy requirements and food source availability across trophic levels
recreational trail impacts
Effects of human recreational activities on wildlife communities through habitat alteration, disturbance, and behavioral changes
honeydew composition
Sugar composition of plant phloem sap which honeydew is derived from, potentially altered by temperature affecting ant recruitment or tending behavior
biomass allocation
Distribution of plant growth and resources between aboveground (shoots) and belowground (roots) structures
tripartite interactions
Interactions involving three species or groups, such as soil microbes, plants, and pollinators
herbivore preference
Selective feeding behavior of herbivores that favors certain plant traits or genotypes over others
associative learning
The formation of predictive relationships between contingent stimuli in the environment
Show 32 more concepts
trophic-level sensitivity
The concept that higher trophic levels are more sensitive to environmental change due to their smaller population sizes and greater environmental dema...
extrafloral nectaries
Nectar-secreting organs located on leaf laminae, petioles, rachis, bracts, stipules, pedicels, or fruit that attract arthropods
factorial experiment
Experimental design testing multiple factors simultaneously in all combinations
sexual dimorphism in plant-insect interactions
How male and female plants of dioecious species differ in their interactions with insects
dominance-discovery trade-off
The hypothesis that species that are competitively dominant have reduced ability to discover new resources quickly
chemical cues
Chemical signals that organisms use to obtain information about their environment
ecological dominance
Having the greatest foraging success relative to abundance in the environment
predator exclusion
Experimental technique to prevent predator access while maintaining other ecological interactions
non-invasive sampling
Sampling methods that do not require capturing or handling animals, such as hair tube traps that collect hair samples
honeydew production
The excretion of sugar-rich liquid waste by herbivorous hemipterans feeding on plant sap
temperature buffering
When clustered plants experience facilitative interactions that cause leaves to be cooler relative to surrounding soils
small mammal abundance
Relative number of small mammals detected through camera trap monitoring expressed as activity indices
relative growth rate
Aphid colony growth rate calculated as ln(n1)-ln(n0)/t where n1 and n0 are final and initial colony sizes
variance partitioning
Method for quantifying the proportion of overall variance explained by different factors or pathways using R² calculations
cost-benefit ratio
The balance between costs and benefits that determines whether species interactions are mutualistic or antagonistic
morphotype classification
Grouping of individuals based on body shape rather than species-level identification due to field identification constraints
aridity gradient
Environmental gradient characterized by declining water availability, derived from temperature and precipitation variables
abiotic factors
Non-living environmental factors such as climate, light, and temperature that influence organism performance
resource density
The abundance or availability of resources in a given area
pitfall trapping
Sampling method using buried containers with killing solution to capture ground-dwelling invertebrates
multicollinearity
Statistical phenomenon where predictor variables are correlated, potentially masking individual effects in regression analysis
trophallaxis
The sharing of liquid food resources between nestmates through specialized anatomical and behavioral adaptations
operational sex ratio
Proportion of flowering individuals that are primarily male-expressing
spatial clustering
When plants are found adjacent to one another with less than two finger-widths between them or when one plant surrounds another
distance gradient
Spatial sampling design measuring wildlife responses at increasing distances from disturbance sources
ungulate-aspen interactions
Ecological interactions between hoofed mammals and aspen trees including herbivory effects on tree health and forest composition
foundation species
Species that define ecosystems and provide critical habitat structure, where big sagebrush is a foundation species in steppe ecosystems of western Nor...
life cycle
The complete sequence of developmental stages from germination through survival, growth, flowering, and reproduction in sessile plants
F-score
Harmonic mean of precision and recall used to evaluate classification model performance
detection probability
The probability of detecting a species given that it is present at a site
dominance-generalism trade-off
Predicts that dominant species may be more specialized on particular resources than subordinates, allowing subordinate species to coexist by better ca...
parasitoid behavior
Behavioral patterns of wasps that parasitize other arthropods, particularly aphids
Protocol (30) →
Experimental predator manipulation with colony establishment
Controlled experiment manipulating predator presence by establishing artificial aphid colonies, protecting them from natural predators, then adding ly...
pitfall trapping (Formicidae)
Standardized 2-hour baiting experiments using 5 different resource types arranged in pentagonal plots to sample ant communities and assess dominance p...
Ant exclusion experiment on aphid colonies
Experimental manipulation using physical barriers to exclude ants from aphid colonies while maintaining control colonies with ant access. Uses paired ...
focal animal sampling
Standardized pellet count method for estimating deer density using systematic transect surveys with random placement. Identifies scat to species level...
Cariveau allometric conversion (Apidae)
Field capture of wild bumblebees followed by temporary immobilization through cold-induced chill coma to enable precise measurement of tongue length a...
Visual and camera trap survey of small mammals
Combined direct visual observation during peak activity periods with motion-activated camera bucket traps to determine species presence/absence in mea...
focal animal sampling (Cervidae)
Controlled experiment using feeding stations paired with predator scent cues to test antipredator behavioral responses. Individual feeding times are r...
mark-recapture (Cricetidae)
Standard live-trapping protocol using Longworth traps in grid arrays for mark-recapture population estimation of small mammals with individual marking...
camera trap survey
Camera traps deployed along trails in a stratified random design to detect wildlife presence and estimate occupancy while accounting for detection pro...
jar method
Standardized wet sieving method using Yoder device to determine soil aggregate size distributions. Measures water-stable aggregates across multiple si...
Show 20 more protocols
Snow melt manipulation experiment (Aphididae)
Experimental advancement of snow melt timing using shade cloth application to test effects on host plant phenology and aphid-plant interactions. Combi...
scat transect surveys (Cervidae)
Systematic collection and GPS mapping of predator scats along established trail networks to quantify spatial patterns of predator activity relative to...
Honeydew collection and chemical analysis
Collection of aphid honeydew on aluminum foil substrates followed by LC-MS/MS analysis to quantify sugar and amino acid composition as indicators of p...
GIS-based meadow habitat mapping for ground squirrels
Used raster analysis in ArcGIS to identify suitable ground squirrel habitat by combining landcover and canopy height data, then calculated distance-fr...
Ant chemical associative learning field assay (Formicidae)
A two-phase field protocol using training baits scented with plant chemicals followed by two-choice tests to assess whether ants form associative memo...
quadrat sampling (Asteraceae)
Plant cover measured using 1 m² quadrats divided into 1 dm² cells, counting filled cells to nearest 0.25 dm². Height measured to maximum plant extensi...
Plant biomass allocation analysis (Valerianaceae)
Calculation and statistical analysis of plant biomass allocation between vegetative and reproductive tissues using arcsin transformations and three-wa...
Colony fragmentation and diet manipulation of Formica podzolica (Formicidae)
Wild ant colonies were collected and split into paired fragments, then maintained on controlled diets (carbohydrate vs protein-rich) to test effects o...
stable isotope analysis
Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of ant tissues to determine trophic position and dietary composition. Involves specimen preparation, dryin...
Gravimetric soil moisture determination
Standardized method using funnel, filter paper and drainage to measure maximum water holding capacity of soil samples. Involves saturating soil, drain...
Multi-year arthropod community surveys on dioecious plants
Exhaustive visual surveys of arthropod abundance on randomly selected male and female plants conducted across multiple years to quantify sex-biased co...
Ant identification and behavioral observation on sunflowers (Asteraceae)
Field-based study of ant interactions with pollinators on Helianthella quinquenervis, involving ant identification and behavioral observations. Protoc...
Dominance scoring (Formicidae)
Three dominance scores calculated for each species at each site where it occurred to assess competitive hierarchies.
eBird citizen science protocol
Use existing citizen science bird observation data from eBird database to characterize bird abundance and diversity patterns across environmental grad...
nonmetric multidimensional scaling (Plantae)
PERMANOVA testing of volatile composition differences across species and years, with NMDS visualization of chemical dissimilarity patterns.
Trophic interaction field observation
Systematic field observation of trophic interactions between organisms, primarily plants and insects, with rotating temporal sampling across multiple ...
clay caterpillar predation bioassay
Artificial prey made from green modeling clay are deployed on tree branches to estimate bird attack rates over a standardized time period. Attack mark...
Climate wetness index calculation
Calculation of site-specific wetness indices using mean annual precipitation and temperature data to characterize local climate conditions for experim...
AIC model selection (Plantae)
Multiple candidate models incorporating different combinations of climate predictors were fitted and ranked using Akaike Information Criterion to sele...
Sagebrush arthropod visual encounter surveys
Visual counting method for arthropods on sagebrush plants involving systematic counting of mobile species first (to avoid double-counting) followed by...
Publication (114) →
Snowmelt affects aphid (<i>Aphis asclepladis</i>) populations through soil moisture and host plant phenology
Vegetation and environmental patterns in the Crested Butte area, Gunnison County, Colorado
Advanced phenology of higher trophic levels shifts aphid host plant preferences and performance
The effects of climate change and biodiversity loss on mutualisms
The effect of ants on the population dynamics of <i>Hamiltonella defensa</i> a protective symbiont of aphids
Sex-specific responses to climate change in plants alter population sex ratios and performance.
Progressive sensitivity of trophic levels to warming underlies an elevational gradient in ant–aphid mutualism strength
Early snowmelt reduces aphid abundance <i>Aphis asclepiadis</i> by creating water stressed host plants <i>Ligusticum porteri</i> and altering interactions with ants
Multitrophic interactions mediate the effects of climate change on herbivore abundance
Advanced phenology of intraguild predators shifts herbivore host plant preference and performance
Show 104 more publications
Coyotes, deer, and wildflowers: diverse evidence points to a trophic cascade
Elevational cline in herbivore abundance driven by a monotonic increase in trophic level sensitivity to aridity
Mechanisms underlying plant sexual dimorphism in multi-trophic arthropod communities
Influence of macronutrient imbalance on native ant foraging and interspecific interactions in the field
Elevated temperatures alter an ant aphid mutualism
Host plant phenology shapes aphid abundance and interactions with ants
Are ants botanists? Ant associative learning of plant chemicals mediates foraging for carbohydrates
Bottom-up mediation of an ant-membracid mutualism: effects from different host plants
Effects of early snowmelt and climate warming on Valeriana edulis and the insects that depend on it.
The Effect of Climate Change on Plant Communities in the Rocky Mountains: How floral traits differ along an elevational gradient and in reciprocally transplanted communities
A balanced diet: Effects of ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) nutritional state on the balance between mutualism and predation upon aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)
The Evolution and Ecology of Interactions Between Ants and Honeydew-Producing Hemipteran Insects
The effect of an introduced predator scent on mule deer (</i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) browsing activities in meadow habitats in Gothic, Colorado
Nowcasting the distribution of <i> Valeriana edulis </i> using climate driven population models
Protection at a price? Ant interactions with pollinators on aspen sunflower (<i>Helianthella quinquenervis</i>)
Insect herbivore stoichiometry: the relative importance of host plants and ant mutualists
Differential response of three large mammal species to human recreation in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA
Decomposing an elevational gradient in predation by insectivorous birds
Ant-aphid interactions: are ants friends, enemies, or both?
Chronic, low-level nitrogen deposition enhances abundances of ant-protected herbivores inhabiting an imperiled foundation species
Different aspects of dominance are not equivalent when testing for trade-offs in ant communities
Role of floral nectaries and plant sex in mediating ant-aphid interactions on <i>Valeriana edulis</i>
The role of soil in regulating plant performance in Valeriana edulis
Ant Behavioral Responses to Aphids Colonizing <i> Ligusticum porteri </i>
The Landscape of Fear and Trophic Cascades: Does Human Presence at RMBL Affect Deer Behavior?
Effects of phenological stage and temperature on <i>Ligusticum porteri’s</i> volatiles and trophic interactions
The effects of recreational trail use on small mammal species richness and abundance
Spatial distribution of mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>): Effects of plant palatability and habitat structure
Variation of wasp behavior patterns and pollination behavior on Ligusticum porteri
Species Interactions in Arthropod Communities: Density Dependence and Ant Interactions on Aphid Per Capita Population Growth
The Effect of Ant Colony Proximity on Membracid Survivorship
The relative importance of spatial vs. temporal variability in generating a conditional mutalism
Testing trade-offs and the dominance–impoverishment rule among ant communities
The effect of hermaphrodite density and frequency at three spatial scales on the polen receipt and seed set of gynodioecious Geranium richardsonii (Geraniaceae)
Assessing the quality of different ant species as partners of a myrmecophilous butterfly
Variation in host plant sex mediates ant-aphid interactions
Short-term, low-level nitrogen deposition dampens a trophic cascade between bears and plants
Associations Between Deer Browse and Aphid Colonization in a Long-Term Monitoring Study of Liguisticum porteri
Niche relationships among species of aphids feeding on fireweed
Plant sex and induced responses independently influence herbivore performance, natural enemies and aphid-tending ants
Genetic variation in plant functional traits as drivers in arthropod community structure
Impacts of Mule Deer Herbivory on Herbaceous Vegetation in the Gothic Area, with Focus on Aquilegia coerulea
What is the nature of the ant-aphid relationship?
Global Climate Change-Induced Mutualism Breakdown Among Legumes and their Soil Synbionts
A multispecies aphid-ant association: density dependence and species-specific effects
The timing of the ant-effect on nymph size and survivorship in an ant-treehopper mutualism
Variation in interaction zone size and influence of sex on fitness components of Valeriana edulis
Abiotic and multitrophic determinants of geographic distribution in an herbivorous insect
Human activity affects the perception of risk by mule deer
The effect of ants on membracid nymph size and instar
Indirect effect of black bears on sunflowers in nitrogen-polluted and pristine steppe
Elevation Does Not Predict Density Dependent Population Dynamics in Valeriana edulis
The Effect of Predation on Ant-aphid Mutualism in <i>Ligusticum porteri</i>
Plant chemical mediation of ant behavior
Effects of recreational trails on small mammal communities in north-central Gunnison County, Colorado
Chemotypic variation in oshá (<i>Ligusticum porteri</i>) in Colorado, USA
Expansion of herbaria data based on historically surveyed herbaceous plants in the Crested Butte area, Colorado.
Sex ratio and reproductive success along elevational gradients of gynodioecious populations of <i>Geranium richardsonii</i>
The influence of human recreational trail use has on rodent and predator activity using motion triggered cameras
Assessing the forecastability & forecast skill of models to predict sex ratios of Valeriana edulis
Are ants botanists?: Ant associative learning of plant volatiles
Tests for Elevational Gradients in Herbivore Abundance and Plant Resistance in the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem
Pollination Preferences of <i> Geranium richardsonii </i> Between Bee and Fly Species at High and Low Elevations
A test of sexual dimorphism in <i>Valeriana edulis</i> resistance and induced responses to herbivory
Antipredatory response of mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) to predator urines
Effect of location on plant species richness and diversity in Aspen (<i>Populus tremuloides</i>) understory: edge vs. inner forest habitat
The effect of ant tending on the fitness of aphids during and after colony establishment
Plant resource allocation and herbivory for <i>Helianthella quinquenervis</i> (Asteraceae) over an elevational gradient
Impact of the Western Thatching Ant (Formica obscuripes) on
Development of Keras image classification model for use with a study on the effects of recreational trail use on small mammal species richness and activity
Seed protection by ants foraging on the extrafloral nectaries of the aspen sunflower, <i>Helianthella quinquenervis</i>
Using GIS techniques to test a model of the coexistence of the golden-mantled ground squirrel, Callospermopholis lateralis, and the least chipmunk, Tamias minimus
Reconstruction and spatial analysis of alpine treeline in the Elk Mountains, Colorado, USA
Effects of avalanches on rodent populations
The ability of ants to associatively learn based on olfactory chemical cues produced by plants.
Self-Similarity in the Distribution of Plant Species Across a Successional Gradient
Does <i>Aphis asclepiadis</i> colony size mediate <i>Formica rufa</i> and <i>Tapinoma sessile</i> competition for mutualist aphids
The Combined Effects of Aphid-Ant Mutualism and Fertilizer on the Resource Allocation of Valerian edulis
What's for lunch: deciphering ant omnivory on lupine
Comparing predictive measures and model functions for estimating plant biomass: lessons from a sagebrush–rabbitbrush community
Floral dimorphism, pollination, and self-fertilization in gynodioecious <i>Geranium richardsonii</i> (Geraniaceae)
Dynamics of male inconstancy in <i> Valeriana edulis </i> in the abiotic and mating environment
Comparing Longworth live traps to hair tubes for describing small mammal communities
Does ant usage vary between the plants <i>Ligusticum porteri</i> and <i>Helianthella quinquenervis</i>?
Examining top-down and bottom up effects on aphid abundance on Ligusticum porteri
Benefits of ant attendance for aphid colonies of varying density
Effects of quantity and distribution of pollen on fertilization in the gynodioecious species <i>Geranium richardsonii</i>
Impact of mound-building ants on ecosystem properties create islands of fertility in alpine meadows
Mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) detect coyote (<i>Canis latrans</i>) scent
Intra- and interspecific competition for mutalists: ants as a limited and limiting resource for aphids
Chemical camouflage and the consequences of changing host plants in a treehopper-ant mutualism
Causes of predation intensity in an ant/aphid mutualist system
Aboveground productivity and floristic structure of a high subalpine herbaceous meadow
Effects of aggregation size and host plant on the survival of an ant-tended Membracid (Hemiptera: Membracidae): potential roles in selecting for generalized host plant use
The effect of ants on the population dynamics of a protective symbiont of aphids, <i>Hamiltonella defensa</i>
The relationship between ant-tending and maternal care in the treehopper Publilia modesta
Competition for mutualists: aphids and ants
Breakfast of champions: Spatiotemporal variation in the quality of ant nests for bear consumers
Dichotomous key of the onagraceae family
The amino acids of extrafloral nectar from Helianthella quinquenervis (Asteraceae)
Spatial segregation of the sexes of dioecious plants
Parasitoids as selective agents in the symbiosis between lycaenid butterfly larvae and ants
The selective advantage of attendant ants for the larvae of a lycanaenid butterfly, Glaucopsyche lygdamus
A modified clip cage for use with aphids and other small insects
Dataset (11) →
Data from: Progressive sensitivity of trophic levels to warming underlies an elevational gradient in ant-aphid mutualism strength
Although species interactions are often proposed to be stronger at lower latitudes and elevations, few studies have evaluated the mechanisms driving s...
Data from: Testing trade-offs and the dominance-impoverishment rule among ant communities
Aim: Ant communities are believed to be structured by competition, with dominant species competitively excluding subordinates (the dominance-impoveris...
Data from: Elevational cline in herbivore abundance driven by a monotonic increase in trophic level sensitivity to aridity
1. The abiotic environment drives species abundances and distributions both directly and indirectly through effects on multi-trophic species interacti...
Decomposing an elevational gradient in predation by insectivorous birds
Insectivorous birds have ecologically important effects on prey abundance, behavior, and evolution, and through top-down control birds indirectly redu...
Multi-year census of arthropod abundance on the plant Ligusticum porteri near Crested Butte, CO
The purpose of this study was to track year-to-year variation in aphid abundance on the host plant Ligusticum porteri (Apiaceae). We censused arthropo...
Plant phenology, aphid colony growth, and honeydew deposition data
Changing phenological cues can lead to trophic mismatch for plants and herbivores, and this often shifts herbivore feeding to plant stages of lower ...
Multi-year census of arthropod abundance on the plant Ligusticum porteri near Gothic, CO
The purpose of this study was to track year-to-year variation in aphid abundance on the host plant Ligusticum porteri (Apiaceae). We censused arthropo...
Data from: Short-term, low-level nitrogen deposition dampens a trophic cascade between bears and plants
Human activities have substantially increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in ecosystems worldwide, often leading to higher plant quality for h...
Data from: Different aspects of dominance are not equivalent when testing for trade-offs in ant communities
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Arthropod abundance censused on the host plant Ligusticum porteri near Gothic, CO.
The objective of this study is to understand how climate cues affect the abundance and phenology of aphids and the arthropods with which they interact...