Natural selection on floral volatiles and other traits can change with snowmelt timing and summer precipitation.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is disrupting floral traits that mediate mutualistic and antagonistic species interactions. Plastic responses of these traits to multiple shifting conditions may be adaptive, depending on natural selection in new environments. We manipulated snowmelt date over three seasons (3-11 d earlier) in factorial combination with growing-season precipitation (normal, halved, or doubled) to measure plastic responses of volatile emissions and other floral traits in Ipomopsis aggregata. We quantified how precipitation and early snowmelt affected selection on traits by seed predators and pollinators. Within years, floral emissions did not respond to precipitation treatments but shifted with snowmelt treatment depending on the year. Across 3 yr, emissions correlated with both precipitation

SUBMITTER: Powers JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11617657 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature