Sex‐associated differences in the network roles of pollinators

Abstract Sex‐associated differences in behavior can have large ecological consequences, especially in plant–pollinator communities where floral visitor behavior affects plant reproduction. Whether these differences are prevalent enough to impact community‐level processes, however, is unknown. Using...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gordon P. Smith, Joel Gardner, Jason Gibbs, Terry Griswold, Martin Hauser, Doug Yanega, Lauren C. Ponisio
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-12-01
Series:Ecosphere
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3863
Description
Summary:Abstract Sex‐associated differences in behavior can have large ecological consequences, especially in plant–pollinator communities where floral visitor behavior affects plant reproduction. Whether these differences are prevalent enough to impact community‐level processes, however, is unknown. Using 256 plant–pollinator communities, we built networks where the floral interactions of each sex were modeled separately, comparing observations to simulated networks where sex was randomized. We found that (1) in many species the sexes differed in their network roles and visited different partners, with females tending to visit more species and more peripheral species than males; (2) more generalist species differed more in network roles between the sexes; and (3) networks where nodes were separated by sex were more specialized than simulated networks, but were similarly resistant to perturbations. These findings suggest that despite variation among species, sex‐associated differences in behavior are large enough to impact the network roles of male and female pollinators and common enough to influence the interaction patterns of entire plant–pollinator communities.
ISSN:2150-8925