9408382 Inouye The value of long-term biological data sets has been increasingly recognized in recent years, for the insights that they can provide on the dynamics of population biology, the frequency of unusual events, the consequences of climate change, and the nature of interactions among species. Despite this recognition that number of long-term data sets available for analysis is still quite small. One reason for this paucity is that generation of such data sets typically involves long-term monitoring, which may be show (especially at the rate of 1 datum/yr) to generate data necessary before hypotheses can be tested, manipulative experiments designed, or publications produced. This project will extend collection of data on several aspects of the ecology of herbaceous plants in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, including the abundance and phenology of flowering and the abundance and seasonality of insect pollinators. Approximately 100 species of plants will be included in this study. This project builds on a continuing endeavor that began in 1973 at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, and already provides one of the longest available data sets on flowering. Data from the existing data set have been included in three recent publications. The data will be accessible and of interest to a large number of active researchers.
