Pollination. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) What do snowmelt dates, Aspen Sunflowers and honey bees have to do with our understanding of the effects of climate change on our ability to feed ourselves in the future?
At the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) high-altitude biological research field station in the mountains of western Colorado, scientists are trying to find out.
This independent field station, unencumbered by institutional affiliations, is situated among the remnants of the old mining town of Gothic, Colorado. What began as a field trip site in the 1920’s, has grown into one of the most important and well-respected high-altitude ecosystems field research stations in the world.
Research at this field station has biologists from various disciplines working to better understand how the natural world is adapting to climate change, providing insights into what the future might hold for our environment and ultimately how this may affect the world’s human population .
At a recent Aspen Center for Environmental Studies Naturalist Nights presentation, “Climate Change and Our Future in the Rocky Mountains”, Dr. Ian Billik, PhD., Executive Director for RMBL, discussed several projects underway at the research site. They were all interesting, but I was especially intrigued by the site’s pollination studies and their implications for the future of the global food supply.
Dr. Billik explained that one of the long-term pollination studies at RMBL appears to show that the effects of global warming may be contributing to decreased wildflower populations in that area.
An analysis of snowmelt dates over several decades shows that snowmelt has been occurring earlier in the year than it did in the seventies and early eighties; and it appears that this may have a significant effect on wildflower reproduction in several ways.
Findings by University of Maryland Professor of Conservation Biology, Dr. David Inouye, suggest that an earlier than normal snowmelt at the RMBL site has caused plants like the Aspen Sunflower to bud and leaf earlier in the year than they have in the past. This, coupled with a spring frost cycle that appears to have little variation, seems to result in greater than usual frost damage to the plants, inhibiting them from flowering and reproducing normally, thus reducing the number of Aspen Sunflowers in the area.
Furthermore, in addition to contributing to greater frost damage, Dr. Billik suggested that abnormally early snowmelt can also disrupt the timing of the pollination cycle of the wildflowers. When plants emerge earlier relative to the pollinating insects such as honey bees, a “mid-summer pollination gap” may occur and further contribute to declines in the wildflower population .
Although these studies focus on wildflowers, ecological climate change dynamics like this on a global scale, combined with widespread declines in the pollinators themselves, could affect the viability of many of the world’s pollinated plant populations as part of the world’s food supply. Pollinated plants make up approximately one-third of the calories we eat.
The RMBL research should lead to a better understanding the effects of early snowmelt on pollination and should “help conserve an ecological interaction upon which we all depend.” - http://rmbl.org/rockymountainbiolab/science.html
Summarizing the RMBL findings in the context of climate change in general, Dr. Billik said, “If you like to drink water, if you like to eat food and you like to breathe air, then you probably ought to care about this.” - http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/152446
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