How plants connect pollination and herbivory networks and their contribution to community stability

Sauve, Alix M.C.; Thébault, Elisa; Pocock, Michael J.O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4375-0445; Fontaine, Colin. 2016 How plants connect pollination and herbivory networks and their contribution to community stability. Ecology, 97 (4). 908-917. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0132.1

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/15-0132.1

Abstract/Summary

Pollination and herbivory networks have mainly been studied separately, highlighting their distinct structural characteristics and the related processes and dynamics. However, most plants interact with both pollinators and herbivores, and there is evidence that both types of interaction affect each other. Here we investigated the way plants connect these mutualistic and antagonistic networks together, and the consequences for community stability. Using an empirical data set, we show that the way plants connect pollination and herbivory networks is not random and promotes community stability. Analyses of the structure of binary and quantitative networks show different results: the plants’ generalism with regard to pollinators is positively correlated to their generalism with regard to herbivores when considering binary interactions, but not when considering quantitative interactions. We also show that plants that share the same pollinators do not share the same herbivores. However, the way plants connect pollination and herbivory networks promotes stability for both binary and quantitative networks. Our results highlight the relevance of considering the diversity of interaction types in ecological communities, and stress the need to better quantify the costs and benefits of interactions, as well as to develop new metrics characterizing the way different interaction types are combined within ecological networks.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0132.1
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Pywell
ISSN:	0012-9658
Additional Keywords:	antagonism, community stability, herbivory network, multiple interaction types, mutualism, network structure, pollination network
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	13 Feb 2017 15:04 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516184

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0132.1

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Pywell

ISSN:

0012-9658

Additional Keywords:

antagonism, community stability, herbivory network, multiple interaction types, mutualism, network structure, pollination network

NORA Subject Terms:

Ecology and Environment