Abstract
Despite progress in understanding pollination network structure, the functional roles of floral sensory stimuli (visual, olfactory) have never been addressed comprehensively in a community context, even though such traits are known to mediate plant–pollinator interactions. Here, we use a comprehensive dataset of floral traits and a novel dynamic data-pooling methodology to explore the impacts of floral sensory diversity on the structure of a pollination network in a Mediterranean scrubland. Our approach tracks transitions in the network behaviour of each plant species throughout its flowering period and, despite dynamism in visitor composition, reveals significant links to floral scent, and/or colour as perceived by pollinators. Having accounted for floral phenology, abundance and phylogeny, the persistent association between floral sensory traits and visitor guilds supports a deeper role for sensory bias and diffuse coevolution in structuring plant–pollinator networks. This knowledge of floral sensory diversity, by identifying the most influential phenotypes, could help prioritize efforts for plant–pollinator community restoration.
Highlights
Despite progress in understanding pollination network structure, the functional roles of floral sensory stimuli have never been addressed comprehensively in a community context, even though such traits are known to mediate plant–pollinator interactions
Answering this question requires a comprehensive dataset on the sensory ecology of an entire floral community, including human-unbiased parameterizations of floral scent and colour[28], and an evaluation of specialization through a balanced design that directly compares the relative impacts of phylogeny, floral traits, phenology and density
When visitation by each major pollinator group was treated as a categorical plant variable, we found that for each plant species in the community, the predominant group, showed a significant phylogenetic signal, i.e. phylogenetically related plant species were mainly visited by the same pollinator group (Rezende’s algorithm, P = 0.008; Fig. 1a, b)
Summary
Despite progress in understanding pollination network structure, the functional roles of floral sensory stimuli (visual, olfactory) have never been addressed comprehensively in a community context, even though such traits are known to mediate plant–pollinator interactions. Distinct sensory biases and cognitive abilities of pollinators are expected to filter the information available in floral landscapes[28], and to shape foraging behaviours[29] In this context, insect responses to natural floral volatile blends were found to correlate with visitation patterns[30], and experimental manipulation of those blends was shown to reversibly affect visitation patterns in two keystone plant species studied simultaneously in a community[31]. Pollination network studies have not yet considered the full complement of floral stimuli; it remains unclear whether community visitation patterns have a sensory basis or, as inferred in most studies to date, they represent a function of floral density and/or phenological matching Answering this question requires a comprehensive dataset on the sensory ecology of an entire floral community, including human-unbiased parameterizations of floral scent and colour[28], and an evaluation of specialization through a balanced design that directly compares the relative impacts of phylogeny, floral traits, phenology and density
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