Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 1105 North University Ave, Biological Sciences Building, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Weiser Hall Suite 700, 500 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Nat Commun. 2020 May 1;11(1):2182. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15688-w.
Ecosystems are composed of complex networks of many species interacting in different ways. While ecologists have long studied food webs of feeding interactions, recent studies increasingly focus on mutualistic networks including plants that exchange food for reproductive services provided by animals such as pollinators. Here, we synthesize both types of consumer-resource interactions to better understand the controversial effects of mutualism on ecosystems at the species, guild, and whole-community levels. We find that consumer-resource mechanisms underlying plant-pollinator mutualisms can increase persistence, productivity, abundance, and temporal stability of both mutualists and non-mutualists in food webs. These effects strongly increase with floral reward productivity and are qualitatively robust to variation in the prevalence of mutualism and pollinators feeding upon resources in addition to rewards. This work advances the ability of mechanistic network theory to synthesize different types of interactions and illustrates how mutualism can enhance the diversity, stability, and function of complex ecosystems.
生态系统是由许多物种以不同方式相互作用构成的复杂网络。虽然生态学家长期以来一直在研究食物链的摄食相互作用，但最近的研究越来越关注互惠关系网络，包括那些通过动物（如传粉者）提供生殖服务来交换食物的植物。在这里，我们综合了这两种类型的消费者-资源相互作用，以更好地理解互惠关系对物种、 guild 和整个群落水平上生态系统的有争议的影响。我们发现，植物-传粉者互惠关系的消费者-资源机制可以增加食物网中互惠者和非互惠者的持久性、生产力、丰度和时间稳定性。这些影响随着花的报酬生产力的增加而强烈增加，并且在互惠关系的普遍性以及传粉者除了报酬之外还以资源为食的变化方面具有定性的稳健性。这项工作提高了基于机制的网络理论综合不同类型相互作用的能力，并说明了互惠关系如何增强复杂生态系统的多样性、稳定性和功能。
