Title :

The Robustness of Plant-Pollinator Assemblages: Linking Plant Interaction Patterns and Sensitivity to Pollinator Loss

Author(s) :

Astegiano, Julia [Auteur correspondant]
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive [CEFE]
Universidade de São Paulo = University of São Paulo [USP]
Massol, Francois [Auteur]
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive [CEFE]
Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198 [Evo-Eco-Paléo (EEP)]
Morais Vidal, Mariana [Auteur]
Universidade de São Paulo = University of São Paulo [USP]
Cheptou, Pierre-Olivier [Auteur]
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive [CEFE]
R. Guimarães Jr, Paulo [Auteur]
Universidade de São Paulo = University of São Paulo [USP]

Journal title :

PLoS ONE

Pages :

e0117243

Publisher :

Public Library of Science

Publication date :

2015

ISSN :

1932-6203

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]/Génétique/Génétique des populations [q-bio.PE]

English abstract : [en]

Most flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce. Thus, evaluating the robustness of plant-pollinator assemblages to species loss is a major concern. How species interaction patterns are related to species sensitivity ...
Show more >Most flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce. Thus, evaluating the robustness of plant-pollinator assemblages to species loss is a major concern. How species interaction patterns are related to species sensitivity to partner loss may influence the robustness of plant-pollinator assemblages. In plants, both reproductive dependence on pollinators (breeding system) and dispersal ability may modulate plant sensitivity to pollinator loss. For instance, species with strong dependence (e.g. dioecious species) and low dispersal (e.g. seeds dispersed by gravity) may be the most sensitive to pollinator loss. We compared the interaction patterns of plants differing in dependence on pollinators and dispersal ability in a meta-dataset comprising 192 plant species from 13 plant-pollinator networks. In addition, network robustness was compared under different scenarios representing sequences of plant extinctions associated with plant sensitivity to pollinator loss. Species with different dependence on pollinators and dispersal ability showed similar levels of generalization. Although plants with low dispersal ability interacted with more generalized pollinators, low-dispersal plants with strong dependence on pollinators (i.e. the most sensitive to pollinator loss) interacted with more particular sets of pollinators (i.e. shared a low proportion of polli-nators with other plants). Only two assemblages showed lower robustness under the sce-nario considering plant generalization, dependence on pollinators and dispersal ability than under the scenario where extinction sequences only depended on plant generalization (i.e. where higher generalization level was associated with lower probability of extinction). Over-all, our results support the idea that species generalization and network topology may be good predictors of assemblage robustness to species loss, independently of plant dispersal ability and breeding system. In contrast, since ecological specialization among partners may increase the probability of disruption of interactions, the fact that the plants most sensi-tive to pollinator loss interacted with more particular pollinator assemblages suggest that the persistence of these plants and their pollinators might be highly compromised.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Peer reviewed article :

Oui

Audience :

Internationale

Popular science :

Non

Collections :

• Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo Eco Paleo) - UMR 8198

Source :

Harvested from HAL