Plant diversity increases spatio-temporal niche complementarity in plant-pollinator interactions.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Venjakob C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4782262 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:AimSpecies differ in their degree of specialization when interacting with other species, with significant consequences for the function and robustness of ecosystems. In order to better estimate such consequences, we need to improve our understanding of the spatial patterns and drivers of specialization in interaction networks.MethodsHere, we used the extensive environmental gradient of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, East Africa) to study patterns and drivers of specialization, and robustness of plant-pollinator interactions against simulated species extinction with standardized sampling methods. We studied specialization, network robustness and other network indices of 67 quantitative plant-pollinator networks consisting of 268 observational hours and 4,380 plant-pollinator interactions along a 3.4 km elevational gradient. Using path analysis, we tested whether resource availability, pollinator richness, visitation rates, temperature, and/or area explain average specialization in pollinator communities. We further linked pollinator specialization to different pollinator taxa, and species traits, that is, proboscis length, body size, and species elevational ranges.ResultsWe found that specialization decreased with increasing elevation at different levels of biological organization. Among all variables, mean annual temperature was the best predictor of average specialization in pollinator communities. Specialization differed between pollinator taxa, but was not related to pollinator traits. Network robustness against simulated species extinctions of both plants and pollinators was lowest in the most specialized interaction networks, that is, in the lowlands.ConclusionsOur study uncovers patterns in plant-pollinator specialization along elevational gradients. Mean annual temperature was closely linked to pollinator specialization. Energetic constraints, caused by short activity timeframes in cold highlands, may force ectothermic species to broaden their dietary spectrum. Alternatively or in addition, accelerated evolutionary rates might facilitate the establishment of specialization under warm climates. Despite the mechanisms behind the patterns have yet to be fully resolved, our data suggest that temperature shifts in the course of climate change may destabilize pollination networks by affecting network architecture.
| S-EPMC7042760 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Green infrastructure in cities is considered to serve as a refuge for insect pollinators, especially in the light of an ongoing global decline of insects in agricultural landscapes. The design and maintenance of urban green spaces as key components of green infrastructure play a crucial role in case of nesting opportunities and for foraging insects. However, only few research has explored the impact of urban green space design on flower visitor communities, plant-pollinator interaction and the provision of the ecosystem service of pollination in cities. We investigated the abundance and diversity of pollinator communities in different urban park types in designed, standardized vegetation units, linked the visitation rates to the structural composition of the park types and derived indices for implemented pollination performances. The study was performed in two different structural park elements, flower beds and insect-pollinating trees. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between plants and pollinators, we calculated a plant-pollinator network of the recorded community in the investigation area. Visitation rates at different park types clearly showed, that the urban community gardens in comparison to other urban park types had a significantly higher abundance of pollinator groups, comparable to results found on a rural reference site. Tilia trees contributed significantly to the ecosystem service of pollination in investigated green spaces with a high supply of nectar and pollen during their flowering period. Calculations of pollination performances showed that recreational parks had comparably low visitation rates of pollinators and a high potential to improve conditions for the ecosystem service of pollination. The results indicated the strong potential of cities to provide a habitat for different groups of pollinators. In order to access this refuge, it is necessary to rely on near-natural concepts in design and maintenance, to create a wide range of flower diversity and to use even small green patches. Based on the findings, we encourage an integrated management of urban free spaces to consider parks as key habitats for pollinators in anthropogenic dominated, urban environments.
| S-EPMC7363068 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Climate change is affecting both the timing of life history events and the spatial distributions of many species, including plants and pollinators. Shifts in phenology and range affect not only individual plant and pollinator species but also interactions among them, with possible negative consequences for both parties due to unfavorable abiotic conditions or mismatches caused by differences in shift magnitude or direction. Ultimately, population extinctions and reductions in pollination services could occur as a result of these climate change-induced shifts, or plants and pollinators could be buffered by plastic or genetic responses or novel interactions. Either scenario will likely involve altered selection pressures, making an understanding of plasticity and local adaptation in space and time especially important. In this review, we discuss two methods for studying plant-pollinator interactions under climate change: spatial and temporal transplants, both of which offer insight into whether plants and pollinators will be able to adapt to novel conditions. We discuss the advantages and limitations of each method and the future possibilities for this area of study. We advocate for consideration of how joint shifts in both dimensions might affect plant-pollinator interactions and point to key insights that can be gained with experimental transplants.
| S-EPMC5499303 | biostudies-other
Project description:Interactions between species form complex networks that vary across space and time. Even without spatial or temporal constraints mutualistic pairwise interactions may vary, or rewire, across space but this variability is not well understood. Here, we quantify the beta diversity of species and interactions and test factors influencing the probability of turnover of pairwise interactions across space. We ask: 1) whether beta diversity of plants, pollinators, and interactions follow a similar trend across space, and 2) which interaction properties and site characteristics are related to the probability of turnover of pairwise interactions. Geographical distance was positively correlated with plant and interaction beta diversity. We find that locally frequent interactions are more consistent across space and that local flower abundance is important for the realization of pairwise interactions. While the identity of pairwise interactions is highly variable across space, some species-pairs form interactions that are locally frequent and spatially consistent. Such interactions represent cornerstones of interacting communities and deserve special attention from ecologists and conservation planners alike.
| S-EPMC4226610 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAnimal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has promoted great advances in biological data sharing and aggregation, supporting large-scale studies and science-based public policies. However, these standards are currently not suitable to fully support interaction data sharing.ResultsHere we present a vocabulary of terms and a data model for sharing plant-pollinator interactions data based on the Darwin Core standard. The vocabulary introduces 48 new terms targeting several aspects of plant-pollinator interactions and can be used to capture information from different approaches and scales. Additionally, we provide solutions for data serialization using RDF, XML, and DwC-Archives and recommendations of existing controlled vocabularies for some of the terms. Our contribution supports open access to standardized data on plant-pollinator interactions.ConclusionsThe adoption of the vocabulary would facilitate data sharing to support studies ranging from the spatial and temporal distribution of interactions to the taxonomic, phenological, functional, and phylogenetic aspects of plant-pollinator interactions. We expect to fill data and knowledge gaps, thus further enabling scientific research on the ecology and evolution of plant-pollinator communities, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and the development of public policies. The proposed data model is flexible and can be adapted for sharing other types of interactions data by developing discipline-specific vocabularies of terms.
| S-EPMC9154084 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Tropisms, growth-driven responses to environmental stimuli, cause plant organs to respond in space and time and reorient themselves. Classical experiments from nearly a century ago reveal that plant shoots respond to the integrated history of light and gravity stimuli rather than just responding instantaneously. We introduce a temporally non-local response function for the dynamics of shoot growth formulated as an integro-differential equation whose solution allows us to qualitatively reproduce experimental observations associated with intermittent and unsteady stimuli. Furthermore, an analytic solution for the case of a pulse stimulus expresses the response function as a function of experimentally tractable variables, which we calculate for the case of the phototropic response of Arabidopsis hypocotyls. All together, our model enables us to predict tropic responses to time-varying stimuli, manifested in temporal integration phenomena, and sets the stage for the incorporation of additional effects such as multiple stimuli, gravitational sagging, etc.
| S-EPMC6544894 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Modelling ecological niches of migratory animals requires incorporating a temporal dimension, in addition to space. Here, we introduce an approach to model multigenerational migratory insects using time-partitioned environmental variables (by months and years) and time- and behaviour-partitioned records (breeding records to model reproductive habitat). We apply this methodology to modelling the Palearctic-African migratory cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui), based on data encompassing 36 years (646 breeding sites from 30 countries). Each breeding record is linked to a particular time (month and year), and the associated values of the bioclimatic variables are used for an ensemble modelling strategy, to finally obtain monthly projections. The results show obligated movements, mostly latitudinal, for the species' successive generations across the overall range, and only scattered locations show high probabilities of reproduction year-round. The southernmost reproductive areas estimated for the Palearctic-African migratory pool reach equatorial latitudes from December to February. We thus propose a potential distribution for the winter 'missing generations' that would expand the V. cardui migration cycle to encompass about 15 000 km in latitude, from northernmost Europe to equatorial Africa. In summer, Europe represents the major temporary resource for V. cardui, while January and February show the lowest overall suitability values, and they are potentially the most vulnerable period for the species to suffer yearly bottlenecks. In summary, we demonstrate the potential of the proposed niche modelling strategy to investigate migratory movements of insects.
| S-EPMC6742982 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAlthough plant diversity is postulated to resist invasion, studies have not provided consistent results, most of which were ascribed to the influences of other covariate environmental factors.Methodology/principal findingsTo explore the mechanisms by which plant diversity influences community invasibility, an experiment was conducted involving grassland sites varying in their species richness (one, two, four, eight, and sixteen species). Light interception efficiency and soil resources (total N, total P, and water content) were measured. The number of species, biomass, and the number of seedlings of the invading species decreased significantly with species richness. The presence of Patrinia scabiosaefolia Fisch. ex Trev. and Mosla dianthera (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxburgh) Maxim. significantly increased the resistance of the communities to invasion. A structural equation model showed that the richness of planted species had no direct and significant effect on invasion. Light interception efficiency had a negative effect on the invasion whereas soil water content had a positive effect. In monocultures, Antenoron filiforme (Thunb.) Rob. et Vaut. showed the highest light interception efficiency and P. scabiosaefolia recorded the lowest soil water content. With increased planted-species richness, a greater percentage of pots showed light use efficiency higher than that of A. filiforme and a lower soil water content than that in P. scabiosaefolia.Conclusions/significanceThe results of this study suggest that plant diversity confers resistance to invasion, which is mainly ascribed to the sampling effect of particular species and the complementarity effect among species on resources use.
| S-EPMC4640883 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Functional diversity loss among pollinators has rapidly progressed across the globe and is expected to influence plant-pollinator interactions in natural communities. Although recent findings suggest that the disappearance of a certain pollinator functional group may cause niche expansions and/or shifts in other groups, no study has examined this prediction in natural communities with high plant and pollinator diversities. By comparing coastal pollination networks on continental and oceanic islands, we examined how community-level flower visit patterns are influenced by the relative biomass of long-tongued pollinators (RBLP). We found that RBLP significantly correlated with pollinator functional diversity and was lower in oceanic than in continental islands. Pollinator niches shifted with decreasing RBLP, such that diverse species with various proboscis lengths, especially short-tongued species, increasingly visited long-tubed flowers. However, we found no conspicuous negative impacts of low RBLP and the consequent niche shifts on pollinator visit frequencies to flowers in oceanic island communities. Notably, fruit set significantly decreased as RBLP decreased in a study plant species. These results suggest that niche shifts by other functional groups can generally compensate for a decline in long-tongued pollinators in natural communities, but there may be negative impacts on plant reproduction.
| S-EPMC5247496 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The reproductive success of flowering plants relates to flower-visitor communities and plant-pollinator interactions. These traits are species- and region-specific and vary across regions, pollinator groups, and plant species. However, little literature exists on the spatiotemporal variation in visitor activity, especially in India. Here, we aimed to depict the spatial and temporal variation in visitor activity on the curry plants (Bergera koenigii). Data were collected at different daytime slots from three vegetation zones (confirmed by field surveys and normalized difference vegetation index values in remote sensing)-dense, medium-density, and low-density vegetation in West Bengal, India. The visitors' richness, diversity, and abundance were higher in the area with dense vegetation. Considering daytime patterns, higher values for these parameters were obtained during 10.00-14.00 h. For most visitors, the flower handling time was shorter, and the visitation rate was higher in dense vegetation areas (at 10.00-14.00 h) than in medium- and low-density vegetation areas. The proportions of different foraging categories varied over time. Vital pollinators were Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, Appias libythea, Halictus acrocephalus, Nomia iridescens, and Tetragonula iridipennis. However, the effectiveness of pollinators remained region-specific. Therefore, it can be concluded that floral visitors' richness, diversity, abundance, and plant-visitor interactions varied spatially with their surrounding vegetation types and also changed daytime-wise.
| S-EPMC10889569 | biostudies-literature