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The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Why Does Biological Diversity Accumulate Around Mutualisms?

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Plant-Animal Interactions

Abstract

It is increasingly apparent that mutualisms are central components of ecological communities, generating linkages among species in ways that lead to rich and persistent assemblages. I propose here an underlying rationale for why biological diversity tends to accumulate around mutualisms. I first highlight four key features of mutualism: most involve one-way or two-way exchange of resources; these resources are commonly used by many different mutualists; as they are difficult or impossible to modulate to mutualists’ needs, there would appear to be an advantage to overproduction; and many species other than mutualists subsist on these resources. As a consequence, I argue, (a) interaction networks form around mutualisms that extend well beyond the mutualists themselves; (b) non-mutualists taking advantage of one species’ resources may often be mutualists of other species in the community; and (c) different mutualistic networks are also linked, because successful mutualisms often generate resources that form the base of yet other mutualisms. I present three examples of plant/pollinator interactions that illustrate how mutualisms contribute to the accumulation of biological diversity in their local habitats. I conclude by offering a set of predictions to move these ideas further.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Judith L. Bronstein

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  1. Judith L. Bronstein
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Correspondence to Judith L. Bronstein .

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  1. Inst de Biologia, Campus Umuarama, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, Uberlandia, Brazil

    Kleber Del-Claro

  2. Inst de Biologia, Campus Umuarama, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, Uberlandia, Brazil

    Helena Maura Torezan-Silingardi

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Bronstein, J.L. (2021). The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Why Does Biological Diversity Accumulate Around Mutualisms?. In: Del-Claro, K., Torezan-Silingardi, H.M. (eds) Plant-Animal Interactions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66877-8_11

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