Abstract
Flowering phenology can be one of the most important factors mediating the temporal dynamics of plant–pollinator networks. However, most studies do not explicitly incorporate the effect of flowering phenology, which may bias conclusions about the structuring of plant–pollinator networks, obscuring our understanding of factors that explain the temporal variation of these networks. By analyzing co-flowering networks, floral traits similarity and pollinator sharing, in this study we aim to uncover the temporal dynamics of plant–pollinator network structure in two coastal communities. We recorded the flowering phenology of each plant species to construct co-flowering networks and the identity and frequency of floral visitors. We estimated and tested for differences in floral trait similarity and pollinator sharing across co-flowering modules. To disentangle the phenological effect of flowering on the structure of plant–pollinator networks, we constructed plant–pollinator subnetworks for each co-flowering modules and analyzed the role of the pollinators in each subnetwork. Floral trait similarity and pollinator sharing were related to changes in the structure of plant–pollinator networks, but these changes were community-dependent. The modular structure and network specialization index of plant–pollinator subnetworks were statistically persistent in both communities, suggesting the prevalence of specialized interactions throughout the flowering season. This result was consistent with the predominant peripheral role of most pollinator species across co-flowering modules in both communities. Our results highlight the importance of explicitly considering flowering phenology to advance our understanding of the mechanisms that explain temporal changes in the structure of plant–pollinator networks.
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The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank L. Abdala-Roberts, P. Sosenski and J. Tun made valuable comments to a previous version of this manuscript and to B. Suárez, E. Soltero, F. Torres and R. Silveira for their help during fieldwork. We would like to thank the editor and one anonymous reviewer for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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This work was supported by CONACyT (248406) to V.P.-T. G.A.-G. was supported by National Science Foundation DEB (1931163). A.S.-M. was supported by a fellowship grant form CONACyT.
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AS-M, VP-T. and GA-G. formulated the idea and conceptualized the study; AS-M and CA. collected and analyzed the data; the manuscript was drafted by AS-M and VP-T. The final MS was edited by all the co-authors.
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Supplementary file1 (PDF 436 KB)
Study site: sand dune (a) and coastal scrubland (b) communities in Telchac, Yucatan, Mexico
Supplementary file2 (PDF 281 KB)
Role of each insect species in the plant–pollinator subnetworks for dune (a) and scrubland (b). Each symbol describes the within-module degree (z) and the participation coefficient (c) of each species. Vertical and horizontal lines represent 90% quantiles of null model coefficients and delimit groups of species with different topological roles in networks. Peripheral species (bottom left), module hub (top left), network hub (top right) or connector (bottom right). See Table S2 for a complete list of floral visitors and their codes
Supplementary file3 (PDF 161 KB)
List of plant species, codes and the number of open flowers per census for the dune and scrubland community
Supplementary file4 (PDF 165 KB)
List of insect species, codes and number of visits per module for the dune and scrubland community
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Suárez-Mariño, A., Arceo-Gómez, G., Albor, C. et al. Co-flowering modularity and floral trait similarity help explain temporal changes in plant–pollinator network structure. Plant Ecol 223, 1289–1304 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-022-01275-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-022-01275-0