The robustness of plant-pollinator assemblages: linking plant interaction patterns and sensitivity to pollinator loss.

ABSTRACT: Most flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce. Thus, evaluating the robustness of plant-pollinator assemblages to species loss is a major concern. How species interaction patterns are related to species sensitivity to partner loss may influence the robustness of plant-pollinator assemblages. In plants, both reproductive dependence on pollinators (breeding system) and dispersal ability may modulate plant sensitivity to pollinator loss. For instance, species with strong dependence (e.g. dioecious species) and low dispersal (e.g. seeds dispersed by gravity) may be the most sensitive to pollinator loss. We compared the interaction patterns of plants differing in dependence on pollinators and dispersal ability in a meta-dataset comprising 192 plant species from 13 plant-pollinator ne

SUBMITTER: Astegiano J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4315602 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature