Publication Details
Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1111/1365-2435.14503
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Urbanisation and agricultural intensification modulate plant–pollinator network structure and robustness
Author Proesmans, W.; Felten, E.; Laurent, E.; Albrecht, M.; Cyrille, N.; Labonté, A.; Maurer, C.; Paxton, R.; Schweiger, O.; Szentgyörgyi, H.; Vanbergen, A.J.
Source Titel Functional Ecology
Year 2024
Department BZF
Volume 38
Issue 3
Page From 628
Page To 641
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g51
Supplements Supplement 1
Keywords bees; bipartite networks; extinction cascade; flower visitors; land use; landscape structure; Nestedness; SCM
Abstract
  1. Land use change is a major pressure on pollinator abundance, diversity and plant–pollinator interactions. Far less is known about how land-use alters the structure of plant–pollinator networks and their robustness to plant–pollinator coextinctions.
  2. We analysed the structure of plant–pollinator networks sampled in 12 landscapes along an urbanisation and agricultural intensity gradient, from early spring to late summer 2021, and used a stochastic coextinction model to correlate plant–pollinator coextinction risk with network structure (species and network-level metrics) and landscape context.
  3. Networks in intensively managed (i.e., agricultural and urban) landscapes had a lower risk of initiating a coextinction cascade, while networks in less intensively managed landscapes may be less robust. Network structure modulated the frequency and severity of coextinctions and species loss, while the strength of species interactions increased robustness.
  4. Urban networks were more species rich and symmetrical due to the high diversity of ornamental plants, while intensively managed agricultural landscapes had smaller, more tightly connected and nested networks.
  5. Network structure modulated the frequency of extinctions, which was decreased by greater linkage density, interaction asymmetry and interaction dependence in the networks, while once an extinction occurred, nestedness and linkage density propagated the degree of the coextinction cascade and species loss. At the species level, species strength was inversely correlated with extinction risk, implying that generalist species with a high number of interactions with specialists had the lowest extinction risk.
  6. An interplay between land-use and network structure affects community robustness to coextinctions with implications for pollination services and plant reproduction. Land-use change or other global change pressures by reorganising species interactions can alter communities and their potential functioning.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=28740
Proesmans, W., Felten, E., Laurent, E., Albrecht, M., Cyrille, N., Labonté, A., Maurer, C., Paxton, R., Schweiger, O., Szentgyörgyi, H., Vanbergen, A.J. (2024):
Urbanisation and agricultural intensification modulate plant–pollinator network structure and robustness
Funct. Ecol. 38 (3), 628 - 641 10.1111/1365-2435.14503