Carvalheiro, LG, Biesmeijer, JC, Benadi, G et al. (34 more authors) (2014) The potential for indirect effects between co‐flowering plants via shared pollinators depends on resource abundance, accessibility and relatedness. Ecology Letters, 17 (11). pp. 1389-1399. ISSN 1461-023X
Abstract
Co-flowering plant species commonly share flower visitors, and thus have the potential to influence each other's pollination. In this study we analysed 750 quantitative plant-pollinator networks from 28 studies representing diverse biomes worldwide. We show that the potential for one plant species to influence another indirectly via shared pollinators was greater for plants whose resources were more abundant (higher floral unit number and nectar sugar content) and more accessible. The potential indirect influence was also stronger between phylogenetically closer plant species and was independent of plant geographic origin (native vs. non-native). The positive effect of nectar sugar content and phylogenetic proximity was much more accentuated for bees than for other groups. Consequently, the impact of these factors depends on the pollination mode of plants, e.g. bee or fly pollinated. Our findings may help predict which plant species have the greatest importance in the functioning of plant-pollination networks.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Facilitation; Floral traits; Flower density; Flower resources; Indirect interactions; Interspecific competition; Morphological similarity; Nectar; Phylogenetic distance; Plant-pollinator networks |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Dec 2014 10:30 |
Last Modified: | 16 Apr 2021 10:48 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12342 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/ele.12342 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:81461 |