Linking Species Functional Roles To Their Network Roles
File(s)
Supporting information
Accepted version
Author(s)
Coux, C
Rader, R
Bartomeus, I
Tylianakis, JM
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Species roles in ecological networks combine to generate their architecture, which contributes to their stability. Species trait diversity also affects ecosystem functioning and resilience, yet it remains unknown whether species’ contributions to functional diversity relate to their network roles. Here we use 21 empirical pollen transport networks to characterise this relationship. We found that, apart from a few abundant species, pollinators with original traits either had few interaction partners or interacted most frequently with a subset of these partners. This suggests that narrowing of interactions to a subset of the plant community accompanies pollinator niche specialisation, congruent with our hypothesised trade-off between having unique traits vs. being able to interact with many mutualist partners. Conversely, these effects were not detected in plants, potentially because key aspects of their flowering traits are conserved at a family level. Relating functional and network roles can provide further insight into mechanisms underlying ecosystem functioning.
Date Issued
2016-05-12
Date Acceptance
2016-04-04
Citation
Ecology Letters, 2016, 19 (7), pp.762-770
ISSN
1461-0248
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
762
End Page
770
Journal / Book Title
Ecology Letters
Volume
19
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Coux, C., Rader, R., Bartomeus, I. and Tylianakis, J. M. (2016), Linking species functional roles to their network roles. Ecol Lett, 19: 762–770, which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12612. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Subjects
Biodiversity
ecosystem functioning
interaction
mutualistic network
resilience
stability
web
Ecology
0501 Ecological Applications
0602 Ecology
Publication Status
Published