ArticlePloS one2018
Insect-flower interaction networks vary among endemic pollinator taxa over an elevation gradient.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pollination Across the Diel Cycle: A Global Meta-Analysis.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Shared pathogens among honey bees, wild bees and hoverflies in mountain ecosystems.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Species morphology better predicts plant-hummingbird interactions across elevations than nectar traits.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Eco-evolutionary origins and diversification in a megadiverse hotspot: Arthropods in the Greater Cape Floristic Region.Ecology and evolution · 2024Review
- Contradistinctive floral attributes, pollination guilds and their consequence on the outcrossing rate in two elevational morphs ofFrontiers in plant science · 2024Article
- Elevational and seasonal patterns of plant pollinator networks in two highland tropical ecosystems in Costa Rica.PloS one · 2024Article
- Glacier retreat triggers changes in biodiversity and plant-pollinator interaction diversity.Alpine botany · 2024Article
- Article
- The buzz around biodiversity decline: Detecting pollinator shifts using a systematic review.iScience · 2023Article
- Seasonal and elevational changes of plant-pollinator interaction networks in East African mountains.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Variation in Plant-Pollinator Network Structure along the Elevational Gradient of the San Francisco Peaks, Arizona.Insects · 2021Article
- The importance of small natural features in forests-How the overgrowth of forest gaps affects indigenous flower supply and flower-visiting insects and seed sets of sixEcology and evolution · 2021Article
- Distribution and pollination services of wild bees and hoverflies along an altitudinal gradient in mountain hay meadows.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Heated rivalries: Phenological variation modifies competition for pollinators among arctic plants.Global change biology · 2020Article
- Asynchrony among insect pollinator groups and flowering plants with elevation.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Geographical Patterns in the Architecture of Neotropical Flower-visitor Networks of Hummingbirds and Insects.Zoological studies · 2020Article
- Refuges from fire maintain pollinator-plant interaction networks.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Interaction networks are sensitive to elevation gradients through changes in local distribution of interacting partners. Here, we use plant-pollinator interaction network metrics to assess the effect of elevation on flowers and flower-visiting insect assemblages on a sentinel mountain used for monitoring climate change in the flower- and insect-rich Cape Floristic Region. We also use these interaction metrics to explain the effect of environmental factors on the interaction networks. We did this over four vegetation zones <1640m asl, as determined by former botanical studies. Overall, bees were the dominant flower visitors, followed by monkey beetles, and far behind were wasps and flies. The middle elevation zone (650-744 m a.s.l), which is also an ecotone between two distinct botanical zones, had the highest species richness and abundance of interacting plants and insects. Interaction frequency and size of network were also greatest in the middle zone, as were network diversity, generality, and linkage density, while lowest in the peak zone. In sum, there was distinct elevation zoning of flower-visiting insects. The greatest zonal change was between species at the middle compared with peak zone. Large-sized monkey beetles, bees and flies characterized the unique assemblage in the peak zone (1576-1640 m a.s.l.). The insect zonation tracked that of plant assemblages, with air temperature (lapse rate) being the primary driver of bee distribution, with lowest levels in the peak zone. In contrast, beetle distribution was driven mostly by flower assemblages as well as air temperature. In turn, wasp and fly interaction networks were not affected by any of the measured environmental variables. We conclude that increased elevation stress from reduced temperatures, changing abiotic weather conditions (e.g. strong winds at high elevations),and decline in flowering plant composition causes breakdown of interaction networks involving bees and beetles but not that of flies and wasps.
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