Spatial heterogeneity regulates plant-pollinator networks across multiple landscape scales

Eduardo Freitas Moreira; Danilo Boscolo; Blandina Felipe Viana

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123628

Spatial heterogeneity regulates plant-pollinator networks across multiple landscape scales

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 9;10(4):e0123628. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123628. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Eduardo Freitas Moreira¹, Danilo Boscolo², Blandina Felipe Viana¹

Affiliations

¹ Zoology Department, Federal University of Bahia, UFBA, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
² Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Literature of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, FFCLRP-USP, São Paulo, Brazil.

Abstract

Mutualistic plant-pollinator interactions play a key role in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning. In a community, the combination of these interactions can generate emergent properties, e.g., robustness and resilience to disturbances such as fluctuations in populations and extinctions. Given that these systems are hierarchical and complex, environmental changes must have multiple levels of influence. In addition, changes in habitat quality and in the landscape structure are important threats to plants, pollinators and their interactions. However, despite the importance of these phenomena for the understanding of biological systems, as well as for conservation and management strategies, few studies have empirically evaluated these effects at the network level. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the influence of local conditions and landscape structure at multiple scales on the characteristics of plant-pollinator networks. This study was conducted in agri-natural lands in Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brazil. Pollinators were collected in 27 sampling units distributed orthogonally along a gradient of proportion of agriculture and landscape diversity. The Akaike information criterion was used to select models that best fit the metrics for network characteristics, comparing four hypotheses represented by a set of a priori candidate models with specific combinations of the proportion of agriculture, the average shape of the landscape elements, the diversity of the landscape and the structure of local vegetation. The results indicate that a reduction of habitat quality and landscape heterogeneity can cause species loss and decrease of networks nestedness. These structural changes can reduce robustness and resilience of plant-pollinator networks what compromises the reproductive success of plants, the maintenance of biodiversity and the pollination service stability. We also discuss the possible explanations for these relationships and the implications for landscape planning in agricultural areas.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biota*
Brazil
Environment*
Models, Biological*
Plant Physiological Phenomena*
Pollination / physiology*
Spatial Analysis

Grants and funding

The present work had funding support from the Brazilian governmental agencies: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico(CNPq – URL: http://www.cnpq.br/ - Edital MCT/CNPq/CT-AGRO - Nº 24/2009), who financed the purchase of equipment and field data collections campaigns; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES - URL: http://www.capes.gov.br/index.php), who granted a scholarship during the master's degree course of Eduardo Freitas Moreira (first author). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.