Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau
Ecological restoration is widely used to mitigate the negative impacts of anthropogenic activities. There is an increasing demand to identify suitable restoration management strategies for specific habitat and disturbance types to restore interactions between organisms of degraded habitats, such as...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.632961/full |
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| author | Erliang Gao Yuxian Wang Cheng Bi Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury Zhigang Zhao |
| author_facet | Erliang Gao Yuxian Wang Cheng Bi Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury Zhigang Zhao |
| author_sort | Erliang Gao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ecological restoration is widely used to mitigate the negative impacts of anthropogenic activities. There is an increasing demand to identify suitable restoration management strategies for specific habitat and disturbance types to restore interactions between organisms of degraded habitats, such as pollination. In the Tibetan Plateau, alpine meadows have suffered severe degradation due to overgrazing and climate change. Protecting vegetation by fencing during the growing season is a widely applied management regime for restoration of degraded grasslands in this region. Here, we investigated the effect of this restoration strategy on plant–pollinator communities and plant reproduction in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We collected interaction and seed set data monthly across three grazed (grazed all year) and three ungrazed (fenced during growing season) alpine meadows in growing seasons of two consecutive years. We found ungrazed meadows produced more flowers and attracted more pollinator visits. Many common network metrics, such as nestedness, connectance, network specialization, and modularity, did not differ between grazing treatments. However, plants in ungrazed meadows were more robust to secondary species extinction than those in grazed meadows. The observed changes in the networks corresponded with higher seed set of plants that rely on pollinators for reproduction. Our results indicate that protection from grazing in growing seasons improves pollination network stability and function and thus is a viable restoration approach for degraded meadows. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T02:28:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-da42eef050a04915869fa9d23bb86b16 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T02:28:45Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-da42eef050a04915869fa9d23bb86b162022-12-21T22:07:02ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2021-04-01910.3389/fevo.2021.632961632961Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan PlateauErliang Gao0Yuxian Wang1Cheng Bi2Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury3Zhigang Zhao4State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, ChinaCentre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall, United KingdomState Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, ChinaEcological restoration is widely used to mitigate the negative impacts of anthropogenic activities. There is an increasing demand to identify suitable restoration management strategies for specific habitat and disturbance types to restore interactions between organisms of degraded habitats, such as pollination. In the Tibetan Plateau, alpine meadows have suffered severe degradation due to overgrazing and climate change. Protecting vegetation by fencing during the growing season is a widely applied management regime for restoration of degraded grasslands in this region. Here, we investigated the effect of this restoration strategy on plant–pollinator communities and plant reproduction in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We collected interaction and seed set data monthly across three grazed (grazed all year) and three ungrazed (fenced during growing season) alpine meadows in growing seasons of two consecutive years. We found ungrazed meadows produced more flowers and attracted more pollinator visits. Many common network metrics, such as nestedness, connectance, network specialization, and modularity, did not differ between grazing treatments. However, plants in ungrazed meadows were more robust to secondary species extinction than those in grazed meadows. The observed changes in the networks corresponded with higher seed set of plants that rely on pollinators for reproduction. Our results indicate that protection from grazing in growing seasons improves pollination network stability and function and thus is a viable restoration approach for degraded meadows.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.632961/fullpollination networkecological restorationthe Tibetan Plateaugrazing exclusionpollination function |
| spellingShingle | Erliang Gao Yuxian Wang Cheng Bi Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury Zhigang Zhao Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution pollination network ecological restoration the Tibetan Plateau grazing exclusion pollination function |
| title | Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau |
| title_full | Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau |
| title_fullStr | Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau |
| title_full_unstemmed | Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau |
| title_short | Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau |
| title_sort | restoration of degraded alpine meadows improves pollination network robustness and function in the tibetan plateau |
| topic | pollination network ecological restoration the Tibetan Plateau grazing exclusion pollination function |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.632961/full |
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