Asking the pikas politely…
Plant-pollinator networks shape the populations of flowering plants across the world. Ecosystems face increasing challenges that decrease floral density and threaten to restructure plant-pollinator networks. The responses of these networks will play a critical role in the fates of plant species, because pollinator foraging decisions are made in the context of a multispecies floral community. Pollinators make foraging decisions to optimize the foraging cost/benefit ratio based on factors including energy expended and gained. The loss of a single generalist plant species has been observed to disproportionately impact the pollinator network, decreasing visitation rates to surrounding plants. However, it is unknown how the concurrent decline of multiple flower species might affect the pollinator community and network. Understanding the impact of floral density on the pollinator network is critical for predicting the effects of ecosystem change. We applied clipping treatments to thirty-six eight-by-eight meter plots to create gradients of floral density for four wildflower species. Pollinator observation data was used to quantify pollinator community variation across plots and calculate network metrics to understand the impact of floral density on the pollinator network. Our findings suggest that changing floral density affects pollinator composition, total pollinator visits, and visitation rate, and has no effect on nestedness or specialization. This has implications for the resilience of plant-pollinator networks and their ability to withstand future threats because these relationships have the potential to increase or decrease plant resilience, an outcome that will help determine the fate of plant populations as they respond to environmental change.
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