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Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics of flower visitor association pattern on two Avicennia mangroves: a network approach

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Abstract

Plant-flower visitor interaction is one of the most important relationships regarding the co-existence of the floral and faunal communities. The implication of network approaches is an efficient way to understand the impact of community structure on ecosystem functionality. To understand the association pattern of flower visitors, we performed this study on Avicennia officinalis and Avicennia marina mangroves from the islands of Indian Sundarban over three consecutive years. We found that visiting time and sites (islands) influenced the abundance of visitors. The bipartite networks showed a significant generalized structure for both site-visitor and visiting time-visitor networks where the strength and specialization of visitor species showed a highly and moderately significant positive correlation between both networks respectively. All the site-wise visiting time-visitor networks and year-wise site-visitor networks were significantly modular in structure. For both the plants, most of the visitors showed a generalized association pattern among islands and also among visiting times. Additionally, the study of the foraging behavior of dominant visitors showed Apis dorsata and Apis mellifera as the potential visitors for these plants. Our results showed that flower visitor networks are spatiotemporally dynamic. The interactions of visitors with flowers at different times influence their contribution to the network for becoming a generalist or peripheral species in the context of their visiting time, which may subsequently change over islands. This approach will help to devise more precise plant species-specific conservation strategies by understanding the contribution of visitors through the spatiotemporal context.

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Data availability

All the data except GLMM dataset are available in Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7612548). The data for GLMM analysis and foraging behavior will be provided on request to the first or corresponding author.

Code availability

All the codes are available in Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7612548).

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Acknowledgements

PRG, University of Kalyani and DST-PURSE 2023-24 should be acknowledged for partial financial support, and the authors are also grateful to the people of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve for their support and cooperation.

Funding

The corresponding author, KB, is grateful for financial support to the Department of Science & Technology-Uzbek (INT/UZBEK/P-09), 2021–2024.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, 741235, India

    Udipta Chakraborti & Kakali Bhadra

  2. RKMVC College, Rahara, Khardaha, West Bengal, India

    Bulganin Mitra

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, 741246, India

    Udipta Chakraborti

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  1. Udipta Chakraborti
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  3. Kakali Bhadra
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UC did the field study, designed the research, and analyzed the data. BM designed the research and guided the field study, and KB analyzed, compiled and reviewed the data, and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kakali Bhadra.

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Chakraborti, U., Mitra, B. & Bhadra, K. Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics of flower visitor association pattern on two Avicennia mangroves: a network approach. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1244 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11845-y

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