On the temporally flexible structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks

Activity Period ◽

Individual Species ◽

Ecological Communities ◽

Short Term ◽

Temporal Flexibility ◽

AbstractEcological communities consist of species that are joined in complex networks of interspecific interaction. The interactions that networks depict often form and dissolve rapidly, but this temporal variation is not well integrated into our understanding of the causes and consequences of network structure. If interspecific interactions exhibit temporal flexibility across time periods over which organisms co-occur, then the emergent structure of the corresponding network may also be temporally flexible, something that a temporally-static perspective would miss. Here, we use an empirical system to examine short-term flexibility in network structure (connectance, nestedness, and specialization), and in individual species interactions that contribute to that structure. We investigated weekly plant-pollinator networks in a subalpine ecosystem across three summer growing seasons. To link the interactions of individual species to properties of their networks, we examined weekly temporal variation in species’ contributions to network structure. As a test of the potential robustness of networks to perturbation, we also simulated the random loss of species from weekly networks. We then compared the properties of weekly networks to the properties of cumulative networks that aggregate field observations over each full season. A week-to-week view reveals considerable flexibility in the interactions of individual species and their contributions to network structure. For example, species that would be considered relatively generalized across their entire activity period may be much more specialized at certain times, and at no point as generalized as the cumulative network may suggest. Furthermore, a week-to-week view reveals corresponding temporal flexibility in network structure and potential robustness throughout each summer growing season. We conclude that short-term flexibility in species interactions leads to short-term variation in network properties, and that a season-long, cumulative perspective may miss important aspects of the way in which species interact, with implications for understanding their ecology, evolution, and conservation.

Experimental evidence of the importance of multitrophic structure for species persistence

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2023872118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (12) ◽

pp. e2023872118

Author(s):

Ignasi Bartomeus ◽

Serguei Saavedra ◽

Rudolf P. Rohr ◽

Oscar Godoy

Keyword(s):

Experimental Evidence ◽

Plant Species ◽

Trophic Level ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Trophic Levels ◽

Ecological Communities ◽

Mathematical Approach ◽

Species Persistence ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Ecological theory predicts that species interactions embedded in multitrophic networks shape the opportunities for species to persist. However, the lack of experimental support of this prediction has limited our understanding of how species interactions occurring within and across trophic levels simultaneously regulate the maintenance of biodiversity. Here, we integrate a mathematical approach and detailed experiments in plant–pollinator communities to demonstrate the need to jointly account for species interactions within and across trophic levels when estimating the ability of species to persist. Within the plant trophic level, we show that the persistence probability of plant species increases when introducing the effects of plant–pollinator interactions. Across trophic levels, we show that the persistence probabilities of both plants and pollinators exhibit idiosyncratic changes when experimentally manipulating the multitrophic structure. Importantly, these idiosyncratic effects are not recovered by traditional simulations. Our work provides tractable experimental and theoretical platforms upon which it is possible to investigate the multitrophic factors affecting species persistence in ecological communities.

A Holling Functional Response Model for Mapping QTLs Governing Interspecific Interactions

Frontiers in Genetics ◽

10.3389/fgene.2021.766372 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Xiao-Yu Zhang ◽

Huiying Gong ◽

Qing Fang ◽

Xuli Zhu ◽

Libo Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Response ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Microbial Interactions ◽

Ecological Communities ◽

Response Model ◽

Ecological Interactions ◽

Dynamic Complexity ◽

Genome Level

Genes play an important role in community ecology and evolution, but how to identify the genes that affect community dynamics at the whole genome level is very challenging. Here, we develop a Holling type II functional response model for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that govern interspecific interactions. The model, integrated with generalized Lotka-Volterra differential dynamic equations, shows a better capacity to reveal the dynamic complexity of inter-species interactions than classic competition models. By applying the new model to a published mapping data from a competition experiment of two microbial species, we identify a set of previously uncharacterized QTLs that are specifically responsible for microbial cooperation and competition. The model can not only characterize how these QTLs affect microbial interactions, but also address how change in ecological interactions activates the genetic effects of the QTLs. This model provides a quantitative means of predicting the genetic architecture that shapes the dynamic behavior of ecological communities.

Hosts, parasites, and their interactions respond to climatic variables

10.1101/079780 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Timothée Poisot ◽

Cynthia Guéveneux-Julien ◽

Marie-Josée Fortin ◽

Dominique Gravel ◽

Pierre Legendre

Keyword(s):

Species Composition ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Biotic Interactions ◽

Climatic Variables ◽

Individual Species ◽

Ecological Communities ◽

Time Period ◽

Local Contribution ◽

Host Parasite ◽

Community Dissimilarity

Aim: Although there is a vast body of literature on the causes of variation in species composition in ecological communities, less effort has been invested in understanding how interactions between these species vary. Since interactions are crucial to the structure and functioning of ecological communities, we need to develop a better understanding of their spatial distribution. Here, we investigate whether species interactions vary more in response to different climate variables, than individual species do. Location: Eurasia. Time period: 2000s. Major taxa: Animalia. Methods: We used a measure of Local Contribution to Beta-Diversity to evaluate the compositional uniqueness of 51 host–parasite communities of rodents and their ectoparasitic fleas across Eurasia, using publicly available data. We measured uniqueness based on the species composition, and based on potential and realized biotic interactions (here, host-parasite interactions). Results: We show that species interactions vary more, across space, than species do. In particular, we show that species interactions respond to some climatic variables that have no effect on species distributions or dissimilarity. Main conclusions: Species interactions capture some degree of variation which is not apparent when looking at species occurrences only. In this system, this appeared as hosts and parasites interacting in different ways as a reponse to different environments, especially the temperature and dryness. We discuss the implications of this finding for the amount of information that should be considered when measuring community dissimilarity.

The effects of experimental floral resource removal on plant-pollinator interactions

10.1101/2021.03.21.436328 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Justin A. Bain ◽

Rachel G. Dickson ◽

Andrea M. Gruver ◽

Paul J. CaraDonna

Keyword(s):

Network Structure ◽

Species Turnover ◽

Individual Species ◽

Natural Setting ◽

Species Loss ◽

Pollinator Visitation ◽

Local Loss ◽

Visitation Rates ◽

Floral Visitor ◽

AbstractPollination is essential for ecosystem functioning, yet our understanding of the empirical consequences of species loss for plant-pollinator interactions remains limited. It is hypothesized that the loss of abundant and generalized (well-connected) species from a pollination network will have a large effect on the remaining species and their interactions. However, to date, relatively few studies have experimentally removed species from their natural setting to address this hypothesis. We investigated the consequences of losing an abundant, well-linked species from a series of plant-pollinator networks by experimentally removing the flowers of Helianthella quinquenervis (Asteraceae) from half of a series of 10 paired plots (15 m diameter) within a subalpine ecosystem. We then asked how the localized loss of this species influenced pollinator visitation patterns, floral visitor composition, and interaction network structure. The experimental removal of Helianthella flowers led to an overall decline in plot-level pollinator visitation rates and shifts in pollinator composition. Species-level responses to floral removal differed between the two other abundant, co-flowering plants in our experiment: Potentilla pulcherrima received higher visitation rates, whereas Erigeron speciosus visitation rates did not change. Experimental floral removal altered the structural properties of the localized plant-pollinator networks such that they were more specialized, less nested, and less robust to further species loss. Such changes to interaction structure were consistently driven more by species turnover than by interaction rewiring. Our findings suggest that the local loss of an abundant, well-linked, generalist plant can bring about diverse responses within pollination networks, including potential competitive and facilitative effects for individual species, changes to network structure that may render them more sensitive to future change, but also numerous changes to interactions that may also suggest flexibility in response to species loss.

Plant composition patterns inside an endemic birds’ nest fern (Asplenium goudeyi) on Lord Howe Island: effects of fern size, fern isolation and plant dispersal abilities

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467415000334 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 413-421 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Amanda Taylor ◽

Kevin Burns

Keyword(s):

Species Interactions ◽

Individual Species ◽

Ecological Communities ◽

Plant Composition ◽

Plant Dispersal ◽

Lord Howe Island ◽

Endemic Birds ◽

Chance Events ◽

Dispersal Abilities ◽

Species Occurrences

Abstract:The importance of deterministic and stochastic processes in structuring ecological communities is an enduring debate. Although this debate is nearly a century old, the extent to which communities are structured by species interactions or chance events is a central issue in ecology. We examined the assemblages of plants living inside 119 birds’ nest ferns (Asplenium goudeyi), which are endemic to Lord Howe Island. Specifically, we investigated whether patterns of species richness and community composition were influenced by fern size, fern isolation and plant dispersal abilities. Fern size and fern isolation significantly predicted plant community richness. At the community level, plant composition patterns did not deviate from randomized expectations. Individual species occurrences increased with increasing community richness, and no species exclusions were observed. Wind-dispersed taxa, which accounted for 29% of all species, were well represented in isolated ferns. Comparatively, poorer dispersers were confined to ferns nearest the forest at the base of the cliffs. We suggest that dispersal plays a key role in structuring plant communities living within birds’ nest ferns, and that species interactions are less important. Our study emphasizes the importance of epiphytes with a nest-like growth form as habitat for plants in a harsh environment.

Patterns of introduced species interactions affect multiple aspects of network structure in plant–pollinator communities

Ecology ◽

10.1890/13-2229.1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 95 (10) ◽

pp. 2953-2963 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Laura Russo ◽

Jane Memmott ◽

Daniel Montoya ◽

Katriona Shea ◽

Yvonne M. Buckley

Keyword(s):

Introduced Species ◽

Network Structure ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Plant-pollinator Vocabulary - a Contribution to Interaction Data Standardization

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.5.75636 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

José Augusto Salim ◽

Paula Zermoglio ◽

Debora Drucker ◽

Filipi Soares ◽

Antonio Saraiva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Functioning ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Data Representation ◽

Data Availability ◽

Primary Data ◽

Great Effort ◽

Interaction Data ◽

Data Repositories ◽

Human demands on resources such as food and energy are increasing through time while global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss are becoming more complex to overcome, as well as more widely acknowledged by societies and governments. Reports from initiatives like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have demanded quick and reliable access to high-quality spatial and temporal data of species occurrences, their interspecific relations and the effects of the environment on biotic interactions. Mapping species interactions is crucial to understanding and conserving ecosystem functioning and all the services it can provide (Tylianakis et al. 2010, Slade et al. 2017). Detailed data has the potential to improve our knowledge about ecological and evolutionary processes guided by interspecific interactions, as well as to assist in planning and decision making for biodiversity conservation and restoration (Menz et al. 2011). Although a great effort has been made to successfully standardize and aggregate species occurrence data, a formal standard to support biotic interaction data sharing and interoperability is still lacking. There are different biological interactions that can be studied, such as predator-prey, host-parasite and pollinator-plant and there is a variety of data practices and data representation procedures that can be used. Plant-pollinator interactions are recognized in many sources from the scientific literature (Abrol 2012, Ollerton 2021) for the importance of ecosystem functioning and sustainable agriculture. Primary data about pollination are becoming increasingly available online and can be accessed from a great number of data repositories. While a vast quantity of data on interactions, and on pollination in particular, is available, data are not integrated among sources, largely because of a lack of appropriate standards. We present a vocabulary of terms for sharing plant-pollinator interactions using one of the existing extensions to the Darwin Core standard (Wieczorek et al. 2012). In particular, the vocabulary is meant to be used for the term measurementType of the Extended Measurement Or Facts extension. The vocabulary was developed by a community of specialists in pollination biology and information science, including members of the TDWG Biological Interaction Data Interest Group, during almost four years of collaborative work. The vocabulary introduces 40 new terms, comprising many aspects of plant-pollinator interactions, and can be used to capture information produced by studies with different approaches and scales. The plant-pollinator interactions vocabulary is mainly a set of terms that can be both understood by people or interpreted by machines. The plant-pollinator vocabulary is composed of a defining a set of terms and descriptive documents explaining how the vocabulary is to be used. The terms in the vocabulary are divided into six categories: Animal, Plants, Flower, Interaction, Reproductive Success and Nectar Dynamics. The categories are not formally part of the vocabulary, they are used only to organize the vocabulary and to facilitate understanding by humans. We expect that the plant-pollinator vocabulary will contribute to data aggregation from a variety of sources worldwide at higher levels than we have experienced, significantly amplify plant-pollinator data availability for global synthesis, and contribute to knowledge in conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

For everything there was a season: phenological shifts in the Tetons

The UW National Parks Service Research Station Annual Reports ◽

10.13001/uwnpsrc.2018.5645 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 11-47

Author(s):

Trevor Bloom ◽

Corinna Riginos ◽

Donal O'Leary

Keyword(s):

Late Summer ◽

Early Spring ◽

Individual Species ◽

Ecological Communities ◽

Spring Temperature ◽

Phenological Shifts ◽

Early Fall ◽

First Flowering Date ◽

Photo Collection ◽

Around the world, phenology — the timing of ecological events — is shifting as the climate warms. This can lead to a variety of consequences for individual species and entire ecological communities. Grand Teton National Park biologists have identified this topic (“effect of earlier plant flowering on pollinators and wildlife”) as one of their priority research needs. We assembled phenological observations of first flowering dates for 49 species collected by Frank Craighead, Jr. in the 1970s, before significant warming occurred. In 2016 we began standardized phenological observations of these same species, plus an additional 61 for a total of 110 species, in the same locations. First flowering date for 65% of the species with historic records correlated significantly with mean spring temperature; these species are therefore expected to flower earlier now than in the 1970s. Early spring flowers had the largest shifts in phenology, emerging an average of 21 days earlier now relative to the 1970s. Yet not all species are emerging earlier. In particular, phenology of late summer/early fall flowering plants was largely unchanged. In 2017, we initiated pollinator collections at our key phenology sites. Additional years of observations will allow us to better understand plant-pollinator interactions and identify potential phenological mismatches. Featured photo by Shawna Wolf, taken from the AMK Ranch photo collection.

How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2017.0768 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 284 (1855) ◽

pp. 20170768 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Otso Ovaskainen ◽

Gleb Tikhonov ◽

David Dunson ◽

Vidar Grøtan ◽

Steinar Engen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Time Series Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Community Level ◽

Series Data ◽

Individual Species ◽

Validation Data ◽

Species Pairs

Estimation of intra- and interspecific interactions from time-series on species-rich communities is challenging due to the high number of potentially interacting species pairs. The previously proposed sparse interactions model overcomes this challenge by assuming that most species pairs do not interact. We propose an alternative model that does not assume that any of the interactions are necessarily zero, but summarizes the influences of individual species by a small number of community-level drivers. The community-level drivers are defined as linear combinations of species abundances, and they may thus represent e.g. the total abundance of all species or the relative proportions of different functional groups. We show with simulated and real data how our approach can be used to compare different hypotheses on community structure. In an empirical example using aquatic microorganisms, the community-level drivers model clearly outperformed the sparse interactions model in predicting independent validation data.

Synergistic effects of non- Apis bees and honey bees for pollination services

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2012.2767 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 280 (1754) ◽

pp. 20122767 ◽

Cited By ~ 180

Author(s):

Claire Brittain ◽

Neal Williams ◽

Claire Kremen ◽

Alexandra-Maria Klein

Keyword(s):

Honey Bee ◽

Honey Bees ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Foraging Behaviour ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Synergistic Effects ◽

Individual Species ◽

Pollination Effectiveness

In diverse pollinator communities, interspecific interactions may modify the behaviour and increase the pollination effectiveness of individual species. Because agricultural production reliant on pollination is growing, improving pollination effectiveness could increase crop yield without any increase in agricultural intensity or area. In California almond, a crop highly dependent on honey bee pollination, we explored the foraging behaviour and pollination effectiveness of honey bees in orchards with simple (honey bee only) and diverse (non- Apis bees present) bee communities. In orchards with non- Apis bees, the foraging behaviour of honey bees changed and the pollination effectiveness of a single honey bee visit was greater than in orchards where non- Apis bees were absent. This change translated to a greater proportion of fruit set in these orchards. Our field experiments show that increased pollinator diversity can synergistically increase pollination service, through species interactions that alter the behaviour and resulting functional quality of a dominant pollinator species. These results of functional synergy between species were supported by an additional controlled cage experiment with Osmia lignaria and Apis mellifera. Our findings highlight a largely unexplored facilitative component of the benefit of biodiversity to ecosystem services, and represent a way to improve pollinator-dependent crop yields in a sustainable manner.