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Effects of climate on pollination networks in the West Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

Ana M. Martín González ,
Bo Dalsgaard ,
Jeff Ollerton ,
Allan Timmermann ,
Jens M. Olesen ,
Laila Andersen  and
Adrianne G. Tossas
Ana M. Martín González*
Affiliation:
Unit of Ecology and Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Autonomous University of Barcelona, ES 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Bo Dalsgaard
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Jeff Ollerton
Affiliation:
Landscape and Biodiversity Research Group, School of Applied Sciences, University of Northampton, Park Campus, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK
Allan Timmermann
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Jens M. Olesen
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Laila Andersen
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Building 1540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Adrianne G. Tossas
Affiliation:
Villas del Río, 1100 Bambú, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
*
1Corresponding author. Email: ana.maria.martingonzalez@gmail.com
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Abstract:

We studied the effect of climate on the plant-pollinator communities in the West Indies. We constructed plots of 200 m × 5 m in two distinct habitats on the islands of Dominica, Grenada and Puerto Rico (total of six plots) and recorded visitors to all plant species in flower. In total we recorded 447 interactions among 144 plants and 226 pollinator species. Specifically we describe how rainfall and temperature affect proportional richness and importance of the different pollinator functional groups. We used three measures of pollinator importance: number of interactions, number of plant species visited and betweenness centrality. Overall rainfall explained most of the variation in pollinator richness and relative importance. Bird pollination tended to increase with rainfall, although not significantly, whereas insects were significantly negatively affected by rainfall. However, the response among insect groups was more complex; bees were strongly negatively affected by rainfall, whereas dipterans showed similar trends to birds. Bird, bee and dipteran variation along the climate gradient can be largely explained by their physiological capabilities to respond to rainfall and temperature, but the effect of climate on other insect pollinator groups was more obscure. This study contributes to the understanding of how climate may affect neotropical plant-pollinator communities.

Keywords

beesbirdsbetweenness centralityDipterafunctional groupsinsectsplant–animal interactionsmutualismsrainfalltemperature
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 25 , Issue 5 , September 2009 , pp. 493 - 506
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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