ArticleEcology and evolution2020
Specialization of plant-pollinator interactions increases with temperature at Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Global patterns in plant-pollinator specialization.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Temperature influences pollinators' choice of floral partners independently of community composition.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Mountain colonization precedes shifts away from bee pollination in Melastomataceae.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Elevational and Seasonal Patterns of Plant-Hummingbird Interactions in a High Tropical Mountain.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Pollinator competition and the contingency of nectar depletion during an early spring resource pulse.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Flower-bee versus pollen-bee metanetworks in fragmented landscapes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Floral and pollinator functional diversity mediate network structure along an elevational gradient.Alpine botany · 2024Article
- Elevational and seasonal patterns of plant pollinator networks in two highland tropical ecosystems in Costa Rica.PloS one · 2024Article
- A dataset of occurrence of wild bees and their interaction with foraging plants along a livestock grazing gradient of northern Tanzania.Data in brief · 2023Article
- Seasonal and elevational changes of plant-pollinator interaction networks in East African mountains.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Dung-visiting beetle diversity is mainly affected by land use, while community specialization is driven by climate.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Generalism drives abundance: A computational causal discovery approach.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Species richness is more important for ecosystem functioning than species turnover along an elevational gradient.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- A synopsis of the Bee occurrence data of northern Tanzania.Biodiversity data journal · 2021Article
- Specialization of plant-pollinator interactions increases with temperature at Mt. Kilimanjaro.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Insect-pollinators and their interactions with plants differ in disturbed and semi-natural areas: Tanzania's Southern Highlands case study.Science progressArticle
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7 authors.
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Abstract
aimSpecies differ in their degree of specialization when interacting with other species, with significant consequences for the function and robustness of ecosystems. In order to better estimate such consequences, we need to improve our understanding of the spatial patterns and drivers of specialization in interaction networks.
methodsHere, we used the extensive environmental gradient of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, East Africa) to study patterns and drivers of specialization, and robustness of plant-pollinator interactions against simulated species extinction with standardized sampling methods. We studied specialization, network robustness and other network indices of 67 quantitative plant-pollinator networks consisting of 268 observational hours and 4,380 plant-pollinator interactions along a 3.4 km elevational gradient. Using path analysis, we tested whether resource availability, pollinator richness, visitation rates, temperature, and/or area explain average specialization in pollinator communities. We further linked pollinator specialization to different pollinator taxa, and species traits, that is, proboscis length, body size, and species elevational ranges.
resultsWe found that specialization decreased with increasing elevation at different levels of biological organization. Among all variables, mean annual temperature was the best predictor of average specialization in pollinator communities. Specialization differed between pollinator taxa, but was not related to pollinator traits. Network robustness against simulated species extinctions of both plants and pollinators was lowest in the most specialized interaction networks, that is, in the lowlands.
conclusionsOur study uncovers patterns in plant-pollinator specialization along elevational gradients. Mean annual temperature was closely linked to pollinator specialization. Energetic constraints, caused by short activity timeframes in cold highlands, may force ectothermic species to broaden their dietary spectrum. Alternatively or in addition, accelerated evolutionary rates might facilitate the establishment of specialization under warm climates. Despite the mechanisms behind the patterns have yet to be fully resolved, our data suggest that temperature shifts in the course of climate change may destabilize pollination networks by affecting network architecture.
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