Urban environments increase generalization of hummingbird-plant networks across climate gradients.

ABSTRACT: Urbanization has reshaped the distribution of biodiversity on Earth, but we are only beginning to understand its effects on ecological communities. While urbanization may have homogenization effects strong enough to blur the large-scale patterns in interaction networks, urban community patterns may still be associated with climate gradients reflecting large-scale biogeographical processes. Using 103 hummingbird-plant mutualistic networks across continental Americas, including 176 hummingbird and 1,180 plant species, we asked how urbanization affects species interactions over large climate gradients. Urban networks were more generalized, exhibiting greater interaction overlap. Higher generalization was also associated with lower precipitation in both urban and natural areas, indicating that

SUBMITTER: Maruyama PK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11621834 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature