Evaluating drivers shaping the structure of bird-plant pollination and seed dispersal mutualistic networks in a subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest
Animal and plant mutualistic interactions can be shaped by various simultaneous processes, including neutral-based processes that emphasize species relative abundance, as well as forbidden links that reflect phenotypic complementarity in terms of species phenology, geographic distribution, or morpho...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Global Ecology and Conservation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425001246 |
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| Summary: | Animal and plant mutualistic interactions can be shaped by various simultaneous processes, including neutral-based processes that emphasize species relative abundance, as well as forbidden links that reflect phenotypic complementarity in terms of species phenology, geographic distribution, or morphology. A thorough comprehension of various factors that shape the architecture of different mutualistic networks is essential for understanding ecological stability of natural communities. However, the variation in the relative importance of underlying processes across different types of mutualistic networks within the same research system remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the relative importance of species relative abundance, phenological overlap, and morphological constraint/matching in explaining the architecture of both nectarivorous bird-plant (pollination) and frugivorous bird-plant (seed dispersal) mutualistic networks within a subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest. Furthermore, we assessed the relationship between fruit nutrients (water, lipid, protein, fiber, carbohydrate, and energy) and species degree, pairwise interaction frequency, interaction strength, and Z-score (species contribution to nestedness) in the seed dispersal networks. Among processes shaping the two mutualistic network structures, phenological overlap was most important in explaining the frequency of pairwise interactions in the pollination network, while a combination of morphological constraint and species relative abundance best explained the frequency of pairwise interactions in the seed dispersal network. Furthermore, morphological constraint among species within the pollination network predicted nestedness. In addition, the combination of species relative abundance, phenological overlap and morphological constraint could explain the nestedness of the seed dispersal network. Our results showed that the water and fiber content of fruits influences both the species degree and interaction strength within the seed dispersal network. Overall, our findings provide evidence regarding the difference of underlying processes that shape the structure of two types of mutualistic networks within a research system. |
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| ISSN: | 2351-9894 |