@article {Klomberg2020.10.16.342386, author = {Yannick Klomberg and Robert Tropek and Jan E.J. Mertens and Ishmeal N. Kobe and Ji{\v r}{\'\i} Hode{\v c}ek and Jan Ra{\v s}ka and Nestoral T. Fominka and Daniel Souto-Vilar{\'o}s and {\v S}t{\v e}p{\'a}n Jane{\v c}ek}, title = {Spatiotemporal shifts in the role of floral traits in shaping tropical plant-pollinator interactions}, elocation-id = {2020.10.16.342386}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1101/2020.10.16.342386}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {The pollination syndrome hypothesis predicts that plants pollinated by the same pollinator group bear convergent combinations of specific floral traits. Nevertheless, some studies have shown relatively low predictive power for these floral trait combinations. This discrepancy may be caused by changes in the importance of specific floral traits for shaping interactions under different environmental conditions and for different pollinator groups. To test this, we studied pollination systems and floral traits along an elevational gradient on Mount Cameroon during wet and dry seasons. Using Random Forest models, allowing the ranking of traits by significance, we demonstrated that some floral traits are more important than others in shaping interactions and that these traits predict pollinators relatively well. However, the distribution and importance of traits varies under different environmental conditions. Our results imply the need to improve our trait-based understanding of plant-pollinator interactions to better inform the debate surrounding pollination syndrome hypothesis.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/16/2020.10.16.342386}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/16/2020.10.16.342386.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }