Universidade de São Paulo - USP, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (IN-TREE), Salvador, Brazil.
Ecology. 2023 Mar;104(3):e3900. doi: 10.1002/ecy.3900. Epub 2023 Jan 6.
Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed of the interactions between those partners leads to a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors on ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, costly and time-consuming, especially in the highly diverse tropics. We aimed to provide a comprehensive repository of available flower-invertebrate interaction information for the Atlantic Forest, a South American tropical forest domain. Data were obtained from published works and "gray literature," such as theses and dissertations, as well as self-reports by co-authors. The data set has 18,000 interaction records forming 482 networks, each containing between one and 1061 interaction links. Each network was sampled for about 200 h or less, with few exceptions. A total of 641 plant genera within 136 different families and 39 orders were reported, with the most abundant and rich families being Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae. Invertebrates interacting with these plants were all arthropods from 10 orders, 129 families, and 581 genera, comprising 2419 morphotypes (including 988 named species). Hymenoptera was the most abundant and diverse order, with at least six times more records than the second-ranked order (Lepidoptera). The complete data set shows Hymenoptera interacting with all plant orders and also shows Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera to be important nodes. Among plants, Asterales and Fabales had the highest number of interactions. The best sampled environment was forest (8000 records), followed by pastures and crops. Savanna, grasslands, and urban environments (among others) were also reported, indicating a wide range of approaches dedicated to collecting flower-invertebrate interaction data in the Atlantic Forest domain. Nevertheless, most reported data were from forest understory or lower strata, indicating a knowledge gap about flower-invertebrate interactions at the canopy. Also, access to remote regions remains a limitation, generating sampling bias across the geographical range of the Atlantic Forest. Future studies in these continuous and hard-to-access forested areas will yield important new information regarding the interactions between flowers and invertebrates in the Atlantic Forest. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set. Please cite this data paper if the data are used in publications and teaching events.
花与无脊椎动物的相互作用是热带森林功能的关键事件。评估这些伙伴之间相互作用构成的网络结构可以更好地了解生态系统功能以及环境因素对生态过程的影响。然而，收集这些数据既昂贵又费时，尤其是在高度多样化的热带地区。我们的目标是为大西洋森林（南美洲的一个热带森林区域）提供一个可用的花-无脊椎动物相互作用信息的综合知识库。数据来自已发表的文献和“灰色文献”，如论文和博士论文，以及合著者的自述。数据集包含约 18000 条相互作用记录，形成 482 个网络，每个网络包含 1 到 1061 条相互作用链接。每个网络的采样时间约为 200 小时或更短，但也有例外。共报告了 136 个不同科的 641 个属的植物，其中最丰富和最丰富的科是菊科、豆科和茜草科。与这些植物相互作用的无脊椎动物均为 10 个目、129 个科和 581 个属的节肢动物，包含 2419 个形态型（包括 988 个命名物种）。膜翅目是最丰富和多样的目，记录数至少是排名第二的目（鳞翅目）的六倍。完整的数据集中显示膜翅目与所有植物目相互作用，还显示双翅目、鳞翅目、鞘翅目和半翅目是重要的节点。在植物中，菊目和豆目具有最多的相互作用。采样最好的环境是森林（约 8000 条记录），其次是牧场和农田。稀树草原、草原和城市环境（等）也有报道，表明在大西洋森林地区收集花-无脊椎动物相互作用数据的方法广泛多样。然而，大多数报告的数据来自森林下木层或较低层次，表明在树冠层对花-无脊椎动物相互作用的认识存在差距。此外，进入偏远地区仍然是一个限制，导致在大西洋森林的地理范围内产生采样偏差。在这些连续的和难以进入的森林地区进行的未来研究将提供有关大西洋森林中花与无脊椎动物相互作用的重要新信息。该数据集不受版权限制。如果在出版物和教学活动中使用了这些数据，请引用本数据论文。
