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Tourbez C, Gómez-Martínez C, González-Estévez MÁ, Lázaro A. Pollen analysis reveals the effects of uncovered interactions, pollen-carrying structures, and pollinator sex on the structure of wild bee-plant networks. INSECT SCIENCE 2024; 31:971-988. [PMID: 37681316 DOI: 10.1111/1744-7917.13267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Revised: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023]
Abstract
Pollination networks are increasingly used to model the complexity of interactions between pollinators and flowering plants in communities. Different methods exist to sample these interactions, with direct observations of plant-pollinator contacts in the field being by far the most common. Although the identification of pollen carried by pollinators allows uncovering interactions and increasing sample sizes, the methods used to build pollen-transport networks are variable and their effect on network structure remains unclear. To understand how interaction sampling influences the structure of networks, we analyzed the pollen found on wild bees from eight communities across Mallorca Island and investigated the differences in pollen loads between bee body parts (scopa vs. body) and sexes. We then assessed how these differences, as well as the uncovered interactions not detected in the field, influenced the structure of wild bee-plant networks. We identified a higher quantity and diversity of pollen in the scopa than in the rest of the female body, but these differences did not lead to differences in structure between plant-pollination (excluding scopa pollen) and bee-feeding interaction (including scopa pollen) networks. However, networks built with pollen data were richer in plant species and interactions and showed lower modularity and specialization (H2'), and higher nestedness than visitation networks based on field observations. Female interactions with plants were stronger compared to those of males, although not richer. Accordingly, females were more generalist (low d') and tended to be more central in interaction networks, indicating their more key role structuring pollination networks in comparison to males. Our study highlights the importance of palynological data to increase the resolution of networks, as well as to understand important ecological questions such as the differences between plant-pollination and bee-feeding interaction networks, and the role of sexes in pollination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clément Tourbez
- Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (UIB-CSIC), Global Change Research Group, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
| | - Carmelo Gómez-Martínez
- Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (UIB-CSIC), Global Change Research Group, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
| | - Miguel Ángel González-Estévez
- Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (UIB-CSIC), Global Change Research Group, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
| | - Amparo Lázaro
- Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (UIB-CSIC), Global Change Research Group, Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
- Department of Biology, Ecology Area, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
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2
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Librán-Embid F, Grass I, Emer C, Alarcón-Segura V, Behling H, Biagioni S, Ganuza C, Herrera-Krings C, Setyaningsih CA, Tscharntke T. Flower-bee versus pollen-bee metanetworks in fragmented landscapes. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20232604. [PMID: 38807521 PMCID: PMC11338570 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 03/30/2024] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024] Open
Abstract
Understanding the organization of mutualistic networks at multiple spatial scales is key to ensure biological conservation and functionality in human-modified ecosystems. Yet, how changing habitat and landscape features affect pollen-bee interaction networks is still poorly understood. Here, we analysed how bee-flower visitation and bee-pollen-transport interactions respond to habitat fragmentation at the local network and regional metanetwork scales, combining data from 29 fragments of calcareous grasslands, an endangered biodiversity hotspot in central Europe. We found that only 37% of the total unique pairwise species interactions occurred in both pollen-transport and flower visitation networks, whereas 28% and 35% were exclusive to pollen-transport and flower visitation networks, respectively. At local level, network specialization was higher in pollen-transport networks, and was negatively related to the diversity of land cover types in both network types. At metanetwork level, pollen transport data revealed that the proportion of single-fragment interactions increased with landscape diversity. Our results show that the specialization of calcareous grasslands' plant-pollinator networks decreases with landscape diversity, but network specialization is underestimated when only based on flower visitation information. Pollen transport data, more than flower visitation, and multi-scale analyses of metanetworks are fundamental for understanding plant-pollinator interactions in human-dominated landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felipe Librán-Embid
- Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
- Justus Liebig University of Gießen, Institute of Animal Ecology and Systematics, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, Gießen35390, Germany
| | - Ingo Grass
- Department of Ecology of Tropical Agricultural Systems, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart70599, Germany
- Center for Biodiversity and Integrative Taxonomy (KomBioTa), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart70599, Germany
| | - Carine Emer
- Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Pacheco Leão, 915, Jardim Botânico, Rio de JaneiroCEP22460-030, Brazil
| | - Viviana Alarcón-Segura
- Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
- Animal Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Marburg, Marburg35037, Germany
| | - Hermann Behling
- Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht‐von‐Haller‐Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
| | - Siria Biagioni
- Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht‐von‐Haller‐Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
| | - Cristina Ganuza
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg97074, Germany
| | | | - Christina Ani Setyaningsih
- Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht‐von‐Haller‐Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
| | - Teja Tscharntke
- Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen37077, Germany
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3
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Encinas-Viso F, Bovill J, Albrecht DE, Florez-Fernandez J, Lessard B, Lumbers J, Rodriguez J, Schmidt-Lebuhn A, Zwick A, Milla L. Pollen DNA metabarcoding reveals cryptic diversity and high spatial turnover in alpine plant-pollinator networks. Mol Ecol 2023; 32:6377-6393. [PMID: 36065738 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 08/18/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Alpine plant-pollinator communities play an important role in the functioning of alpine ecosystems, which are highly threatened by climate change. However, we still have a poor understanding of how environmental factors and spatiotemporal variability shape these communities. Here, we investigate what drives structure and beta diversity in a plant-pollinator metacommunity from the Australian alpine region using two approaches: pollen DNA metabarcoding (MB) and observations. Individual pollinators often carry pollen from multiple plant species, and therefore we expected MB to reveal a more diverse and complex network structure. We used two gene regions (ITS2 and trnL) to identify plant species present in the pollen loads of 154 insect pollinator specimens from three alpine habitats and construct MB networks, and compared them to networks based on observations alone. We compared species and interaction turnover across space for both types of networks, and evaluated their differences for plant phylogenetic diversity and beta diversity. We found significant structural differences between the two types of networks; notably, MB networks were much less specialized but more diverse than observation networks, with MB detecting many cryptic plant species. Both approaches revealed that alpine pollination networks are very generalized, but we estimated a high spatial turnover of plant species (0.79) and interaction rewiring (0.6) as well as high plant phylogenetic diversity (0.68) driven by habitat differences based on the larger diversity of plant species and species interactions detected with MB. Overall, our findings show that habitat and microclimatic heterogeneity drives diversity and fine-scale spatial turnover of alpine plant-pollinator networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Encinas-Viso
- Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Jessica Bovill
- Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - David E Albrecht
- Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Jaime Florez-Fernandez
- Australian National Insect Collection, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Bryan Lessard
- Australian National Insect Collection, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - James Lumbers
- Australian National Insect Collection, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Juanita Rodriguez
- Australian National Insect Collection, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
- Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Andreas Zwick
- Australian National Insect Collection, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
| | - Liz Milla
- Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia
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4
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Leimberger KG, Hadley AS, Betts MG. Plant-hummingbird pollination networks exhibit limited rewiring after experimental removal of a locally abundant plant species. J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:1680-1694. [PMID: 37173807 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Mutualistic relationships, such as those between plants and pollinators, may be vulnerable to the local extinctions predicted under global environmental change. However, network theory predicts that plant-pollinator networks can withstand species loss if pollinators switch to alternative floral resources (rewiring). Whether rewiring occurs following species loss in natural communities is poorly known because replicated species exclusions are difficult to implement at appropriate spatial scales. We experimentally removed a hummingbird-pollinated plant, Heliconia tortuosa, from within tropical forest fragments to investigate how hummingbirds respond to temporary loss of an abundant resource. Under the rewiring hypothesis, we expected that behavioural flexibility would allow hummingbirds to use alternative resources, leading to decreased ecological specialization and reorganization of the network structure (i.e. pairwise interactions). Alternatively, morphological or behavioural constraints-such as trait-matching or interspecific competition-might limit the extent to which hummingbirds alter their foraging behaviour. We employed a replicated Before-After-Control-Impact experimental design and quantified plant-hummingbird interactions using two parallel sampling methods: pollen collected from individual hummingbirds ('pollen networks', created from >300 pollen samples) and observations of hummingbirds visiting focal plants ('camera networks', created from >19,000 observation hours). To assess the extent of rewiring, we quantified ecological specialization at the individual, species and network levels and examined interaction turnover (i.e. gain/loss of pairwise interactions). H. tortuosa removal caused some reorganization of pairwise interactions but did not prompt large changes in specialization, despite the large magnitude of our manipulation (on average, >100 inflorescences removed in exclusion areas of >1 ha). Although some individual hummingbirds sampled through time showed modest increases in niche breadth following Heliconia removal (relative to birds that did not experience resource loss), these changes were not reflected in species- and network-level specialization metrics. Our results suggest that, at least over short time-scales, animals may not necessarily shift to alternative resources after losing an abundant food resource-even in species thought to be highly opportunistic foragers, such as hummingbirds. Given that rewiring contributes to theoretical predictions of network stability, future studies should investigate why pollinators might not expand their diets after a local resource extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kara G Leimberger
- Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
| | - Adam S Hadley
- Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
- Biodiversity Section, Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
| | - Matthew G Betts
- Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
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5
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Vizentin-Bugoni J, Maruyama PK. To rewire or not to rewire: To what extent rewiring to surviving partners can avoid extinction? J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:1676-1679. [PMID: 37670422 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/07/2023]
Abstract
Research Highlight: Leimberger, K.G., Hadley, A.S., & Betts, M.G. (2023). Plant-hummingbird pollination networks exhibit minimal rewiring after experimental removal of a locally abundant plant species. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13935. In this paper, Leimberger, Hadley and Betts (2023) explore the effects of removing a locally abundant plant species on plant-hummingbird pollination networks. They experimentally prevented access of hummingbirds to flowers of Heliconia tortuosa and assessed subsequent changes in the interactions between plants and hummingbirds. Their main hypothesis postulated that the loss of a highly connected species would lead to interaction rewiring and niche expansions by hummingbirds, decreasing individual, species and network specialization. However, they found that the overall structure of the plant-hummingbird networks remains mostly unaltered, with limited rewiring and minimal changes in specialization. The main contributions of this study can be summarized as (i) it adds to a limited number of manipulative studies on the capacity of species to rewire their interactions following the loss of partners, and importantly, it is the first study from the tropics and with vertebrate pollinators, for which experimental studies at appropriate scales is intrinsically more challenging; and (ii) innovates by evaluating change in specialization for the individual level, carried out through pollen sampling on the body of hummingbirds. The limited change in species interactions highlights that network stability through interaction rewiring may have been overestimated in previous studies, calling for further manipulative studies in the field. At the same time, it also indicated that even the loss of a highly abundant plant species has an overall small effect on network structure. Thus, this study contributes timely findings regarding the capacity of ecological communities to respond to species extinctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Interações & Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Animal, Departamento de Ecologia Zoologia e Genética, Universidade Federal de Pelotas-UFPel, Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Pietro Kiyoshi Maruyama
- Centro de Síntese Ecológica e Conservação, Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais-UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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6
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Native diversity contributes to composition heterogeneity of exotic floras. Ecosphere 2023. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/11/2023] Open
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7
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Liévano‐Latorre LF, Varassin IG, Zanata TB. Evolutionary history and precipitation seasonality shape niche overlap in Neotropical bat–plant pollination networks. Biotropica 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.13181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Luisa Fernanda Liévano‐Latorre
- Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação Universidade Federal do Paraná Curitiba Brazil
- Laboratório de Interações e Biologia Reprodutiva, Departamento de Botânica Universidade Federal do Paraná Curitiba Brazil
- Laboratório de Biogeografia da Conservação, Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Federal de Goiás Goiânia Brazil
| | - Isabela G. Varassin
- Laboratório de Interações e Biologia Reprodutiva, Departamento de Botânica Universidade Federal do Paraná Curitiba Brazil
| | - Thais B. Zanata
- Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação Universidade Federal do Paraná Curitiba Brazil
- Laboratório de Interações e Síntese em Biodiversidade, Departamento de Botânica e Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso Cuiabá Brazil
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8
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Maglianesi MA, Maruyama PK, Temeles EJ, Schleuning M, Zanata TB, Sazima M, Gutiérrez-Zamora A, Marín-Gómez OH, Rosero-Lasprilla L, Ramírez-Burbano MB, Ruffini AE, Salamanca-Reyes JR, Sazima I, Nuñez-Rosas LE, Arizmendi MDC, Rahbek C, Dalsgaard B. Behavioural and morphological traits influence sex-specific floral resource use by hummingbirds. J Anim Ecol 2022; 91:2171-2180. [PMID: 35596605 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13746] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
1. Research on resource partitioning in plant-pollinator mutualistic systems is mainly concentrated at the levels of species and communities, whereas differences between males and females are typically ignored. Nevertheless, pollinators often show large sexual differences in behaviour and morphology, which may lead to sex-specific patterns of resource use with the potential to differentially affect plant reproduction and diversification. 2. We investigated variation in behavioural and morphological traits between sexes of hummingbird species as potential mechanisms underlying sex-specific flower resource use in ecological communities. To do so, we compiled a dataset of plant-hummingbird interactions based on pollen loads for 31 hummingbird species from 13 localities across the Americas, complemented by data on territorial behaviour (territorial or nonterritorial) and morphological traits (bill length, bill curvature, wing length and body mass). 3. We assessed the extent of intersexual differences in niche breadth and niche overlap in floral resource use across hummingbird species. Then, we tested whether floral niche breadth and overlap between sexes are associated with sexual dimorphism in behavioural or morphological traits of hummingbird species, while accounting for evolutionary relatedness among the species. 4. We found striking differences in patterns of floral resource use between sex. Females had a broader floral niche breadth and were more dissimilar in the plant species visited with respect to males of the same species, resulting in a high level of resource partitioning between sexes. We found that both territoriality and morphological traits were related to sex-specific resource use by hummingbird species. Notably, niche overlap between sexes was greater for territorial than nonterritorial species, and moreover, niche overlap was negatively associated with sexual dimorphism in bill curvature across hummingbird species. 5. These results reveal the importance of behavioural and morphological traits of hummingbird species in sex-specific resource use and that resource partitioning by sex is likely to be an important mechanism to reduce intersexual competition in hummingbirds. These findings highlight the need for better understanding the putative role of intersexual variation in shaping patterns of interactions and plant reproduction in ecological communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- María A Maglianesi
- Vicerrectoría de Investigación, Universidad Estatal a Distancia, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Pietro K Maruyama
- Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | | | - Matthias Schleuning
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt (Main), Germany
| | - Thais B Zanata
- Departamento de Botânica e Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, MT, Brasil
| | - Marlies Sazima
- Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Instituto de Biología, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil
| | | | - Oscar H Marín-Gómez
- Grupo de Investigación y Asesoría en Estadística. Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia.,Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Liliana Rosero-Lasprilla
- Grupo de Investigación Biología para la Conservación, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de, Colombia
| | - Mónica B Ramírez-Burbano
- Grupo Ecología y Diversidad Vegetal, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 # 100-00, Cali, Colombia
| | - Alejandra E Ruffini
- E. Ruffini. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Unidad Postal Universidad, 8400, Bariloche, Argentina
| | | | - Ivan Sazima
- Museu de Biodiversidade Biológica, Instituto de Biología, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brasil
| | - Laura E Nuñez-Rosas
- Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. de los Barrios 1, Los Reyes Iztacala, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México, México
| | - María Del Coro Arizmendi
- Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. de los Barrios 1, Los Reyes Iztacala, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México, México
| | - Carsten Rahbek
- Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.,Institute of Ecology, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Danish Institute for Advanced Study, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark
| | - Bo Dalsgaard
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.,Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen K, Denmark
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Vitorino BD, Frota AVBD, Maruyama PK, Nunes JRDS, Vizentin-Bugoni J. Influence of sampling methods on the description of a Neotropical seed dispersal network. ACTA OECOLOGICA 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.actao.2021.103805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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10
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Ceron K, Provete DB, Pires MM, Araujo AC, Blüthgen N, Santana DJ. Differences in prey availability across space and time lead to interaction rewiring and reshape a predator-prey metaweb. Ecology 2022; 103:e3716. [PMID: 35388458 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 01/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Space and time promote variation in network structure by affecting the likelihood of potential interactions. However, little is known about the relative roles of ecological and biogeographical processes in determining how species interactions vary across space and time. Here, we study the spatiotemporal variation in predator-prey interaction networks formed by anurans and arthropods and test for the effects of prey availability in determining interaction patterns, information that is often absent and limits the understanding of the determinants of network structure. We found that network dissimilarity between ecoregions and seasons was high and primarily driven by interaction rewiring. Interaction rewiring drove variation across seasons and ecoregions and species turnover was positively related to geographical distance. Using a null model approach to disentangle the effect of prey availability on the spatial and temporal variation we show that differences in prey availability were important in determining the variation in network structure between seasons and among areas. Our study reveals that fluctuations in prey abundance, along with limited dispersal abilities of anurans and their prey, may be responsible for the spatial patterns that emerged in our predator-prey metaweb. These findings contribute to our understanding of the assembly rules that maintain biotic processes in metacommunities and highlight the importance of prey availability to the structure of these systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karoline Ceron
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Cidade Universitária, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.,Laboratório de Estrutura e Dinâmica da Diversidade (LEDDiv), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Diogo B Provete
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Cidade Universitária, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.,Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Göteborg, SE-405 30, Box 100, Sweden
| | - Mathias M Pires
- Laboratório de Estrutura e Dinâmica da Diversidade (LEDDiv), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Andréa C Araujo
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Cidade Universitária, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
| | - Nico Blüthgen
- Ecological Networks Research Group, Department of Biology, Technische Univsersität Darmstadt, Schinittspahnstraβe. 3, Germany
| | - Diego J Santana
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Cidade Universitária, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
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