10.5061/DRYAD.63FP5
Tur, Cristina
Aarhus University
Traveset, Anna
University of the Balearic Islands
Trøjelsgaard, Kristian
Aarhus University
Olesen, Jens M.
Aarhus University
Data from: Downscaling pollen-transport networks to the level of individuals
Dryad
dataset
2013
individual-based networks
pollen-load analysis
pollination networks
species-based networks
ecology of individuals
resource partition
insect pollinators
plant-pollinator interactions
linkage level
network downscaling
2013-08-01T16:09:10Z
2013-08-01T16:09:10Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12130
54300 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
1. Most plant-pollinator network studies are conducted at species level
whereas little is known about network patterns at the individual level. In
fact, nodes in traditional species-based interaction networks are
aggregates of individuals establishing the actual links observed in
nature. Thus, emergent properties of interaction networks might be the
result of mechanisms acting at the individual level. 2. Pollen loads
carried by insect flower-visitors from two mountain communities were
studied to construct pollen-transport networks. For the first time, these
community-wide pollen-transport networks were downscaled from
species-species (sp-sp) to individuals-species (i-sp) in order to explore
specialization, network patterns and niche variation at both interacting
levels. We used a null model approach to account for network size
differences inherent to the downscaling process. Specifically, our
objectives were: (i) to investigate whether network structure changes with
downscaling, (ii) to evaluate the incidence and magnitude of individual
specialization in pollen use, and (iii) to identify potential ecological
factors influencing the observed degree of individual specialization. 3.
Network downscaling revealed a high specialization of pollinator
individuals, which was masked and unexplored in sp-sp networks. The
average number of interactions per node, connectance, interaction
diversity and degree of nestedness decreased in i-sp networks, because
generalized pollinator species were composed of specialized and
idiosyncratic conspecific individuals. An analysis with 21 pollinator
species representative of two communities showed that mean individual
pollen resource niche was only c. 46% of the total species niche. 4.The
degree of individual specialization was associated to inter- and
intraspecific overlap in pollen use and it was higher for abundant than
for rare species. Such niche heterogeneity depends on individual
differences in foraging behaviour and likely has implications for
community dynamics and species stability. 5. Our findings highlight the
importance of taking inter-individual variation into account when studying
higher–order structures such as interaction networks. We argue that
exploring individual-based networks will improve our understanding of
species-based networks and will enhance the link between network analysis,
foraging theory and evolutionary biology.
Pollen-transport networksQuantitative matrices of interactions among
insect pollinators and plant pollen types for species-species and
individuals-species networks at two study
sites.weighted_webs.rarPollinator and plant pollen type nodesFiles with
information on network nodes identity.node_info.rarSummary resultsTable
with specialization indices, abundance and phenology data for 21 selected
species from the networks.summary_table_results.txtR script for analysesR
code to perform all the analyses included in Tur et al.
2013.Rcode_analysis_in_Tur_et_al_2013.r
Balearic Islands (Spain)
Mallorca