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Phenology and Robustness in plant-pollinator networks

Laura Melissa Guzman, Scott A. Chamberlain, Elizabeth Elle
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.362616
Laura Melissa Guzman
1Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6 Canada
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Scott A. Chamberlain
1Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6 Canada
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Elizabeth Elle
1Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6 Canada
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  • For correspondence: eelle@sfu.ca laura_melissa_guzman@sfu.ca
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Abstract

Many metrics that describe the structure of mutualistic plant-pollinator networks have been found to be important for network stability and robustness. These metrics are impacted by a suite of variables, including species traits, species abundances, their spatial configuration, and their phylogenetic history. Here, we consider a specific trait, phenology, or the timing of life history events. We expect that timing and duration of activity of pollinators, or of flowering in plants, could greatly affect the structure of the networks in which they are embedded. Using plant-pollinator networks from 33 sites in southern British Columbia, Canada, we asked a) how phenological species traits, specifically timing of first appearance in the network and duration of activity in a network, were related to network structure, and b) how those traits affected network robustness to phenologically biased species loss. We found that long duration of activity increased connection within modules for both pollinators and plants and among modules for plants. We also found that date of first appearance was positively related to interaction strength asymmetry in plants but negatively related in pollinators. Networks were generally more robust to the loss of pollinators than plants, but robustness declined with loss of early-flying or long-duration pollinators. These pollinators tended to be among-module connectors. Our results show that changes in phenology have the potential to impact plant-pollinator networks, which may have conservation relevance in a time of changing climate.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 01, 2020.
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Phenology and Robustness in plant-pollinator networks
Laura Melissa Guzman, Scott A. Chamberlain, Elizabeth Elle
bioRxiv 2020.10.30.362616; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.362616
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Phenology and Robustness in plant-pollinator networks
Laura Melissa Guzman, Scott A. Chamberlain, Elizabeth Elle
bioRxiv 2020.10.30.362616; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.362616

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