Palumbo Gaiarsa Marilia, Bramon Mora Bernat, Kremen Claire, Ponisio Lauren C
Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, California, USA.
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Ecology. 2025 Jun;106(6):e70119. doi: 10.1002/ecy.70119.
The assembly of plant-pollinator communities has traditionally been explored from the perspective of species composition, often overlooking how interaction structure and the roles species play in their communities can change even when species composition remains constant. Here, we use 10 years of data to investigate the assembly of plant-pollinator networks in an intensively managed agricultural landscape. We compare the characteristics of assembling communities to those of mature and unrestored communities to explore if and how changes are reflected in species composition, network structure, and species' roles therein. Unexpectedly, we found that although species' composition of mature communities became increasingly dissimilar over time, the overall community structure and individual species' roles in assembling communities remained unchanged. Yet, the network structure of assembling communities gradually converged toward that of mature communities. Our results suggest that even when traditional diversity measures remain relatively invariant, network structure can uncover the dynamic nature of ecological communities, rendering interaction networks an important component of community assembly studies. Our findings advance the understanding of essential ecological processes underlying community assembly and provide insights into the mechanisms shaping species' roles within ecological networks.
传统上，植物-传粉者群落的组装是从物种组成的角度进行探索的，常常忽略了即使物种组成保持不变，相互作用结构以及物种在其群落中所扮演的角色是如何变化的。在这里，我们利用10年的数据来研究集约化管理的农业景观中植物-传粉者网络的组装。我们将正在组装的群落的特征与成熟和未恢复群落的特征进行比较，以探究变化是否以及如何在物种组成、网络结构以及物种在其中的角色中得到体现。出乎意料的是，我们发现尽管成熟群落的物种组成随着时间的推移变得越来越不同，但正在组装的群落的整体群落结构和单个物种的角色保持不变。然而，正在组装的群落的网络结构逐渐向成熟群落的网络结构收敛。我们的结果表明，即使传统的多样性指标保持相对不变，网络结构也能够揭示生态群落的动态本质，使相互作用网络成为群落组装研究的重要组成部分。我们的发现推进了对群落组装背后基本生态过程的理解，并为塑造生态网络中物种角色的机制提供了见解。
