RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mapping trait versus species turnover reveals spatiotemporal variation in functional redundancy in a plant-pollinator network
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.11.29.470359
DO 10.1101/2021.11.29.470359
A1 Aoife Cantwell-Jones
A1 Keith Larson
A1 Alan Ward
A1 Olivia K. Bates
A1 Tara Cox
A1 Frida Brannlund
A1 Charlotte Gibbons
A1 Ryan Richardson
A1 Jason M. Tylianakis
A1 Jacob Johansson
A1 Richard J. Gill
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/30/2021.11.29.470359.abstract
AB Functional overlap between species (redundancy) shapes competitive and mutualistic interactions, determining community responses to perturbations. Most studies view functional redundancy as static, even though individuals within species vary in traits over seasonal or spatial gradients. Consequently, we lack knowledge on trait turnover within species, how functional redundancy spatiotemporally varies, and when and where interaction networks are vulnerable to functional loss. Studying an Arctic bumblebee community, we investigated how body-size turnover over elevation and season shapes their host-plant interactions, and test how sensitive networks are to sequentially losing body-size groups. With trait turnover being larger than species, we found: i) late-season networks were less specialised when nodes comprised functionally similar bumblebees; ii) removal of bumblebee-body-size groups over species accelerated coextinction of host plants, with the magnitude varying in space and time. We demonstrate functional redundancy can vary spatiotemporally, and functional loss impacts interaction partners more than expected from species loss alone.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.