High levels of phenological asynchrony between specialized pollinators and plants with short flowering phases

Abstract

Species phenology plays a key role in determining mutualistic interactions, such as those between plants and pollinators. Notably, temporal synchrony shapes the patterns of interactions by influencing the probability of encounters between interacting partners; thus, species phenology greatly contributes to structuring ecological communities. In these communities, specialized species are expected to show a high level of synchrony with their partners; however, the relationship between species phenology and specialization remains largely unexplored. In three localities in the tropical mountains of Costa Rica, we quantified the level of phenological synchrony in plant–pollinator networks and tested whether phenological synchrony is associated with the degree of pollinator specialization on plant partners. We also tested the relationship between pollinator specialization and the length of the flowering phase of the visited plants. Across all three studied networks, our results show a strong asynchrony between interacting plant and pollinator species. We also found that more specialized pollinators were more asynchronous with their plant partners and, moreover, that specialized pollinators preferably visited plant species with shorter flowering phases compared to generalized pollinators. These patterns suggest that specialized pollinators may be more vulnerable to mutualistic disruptions because they depend primarily on short‐lived resources and have a high risk of phenological mismatch. This discovery has important consequences for specialized species’ potential to survive and adapt to changes in the phenology of their interacting partners, which is highly relevant in a time characterized by changing climates and associated shifts in species phenology.

Disruption of biological processes in the Anthropocene: the case of phenological mismatch

“…Specialists are particularly vulnerable because the random changes can lead to mismatches that other plants do not compensate for. Recent observations confirm this point (Maglianesi et al, 2020). The authors do not consider that these disruptions always lead to extinction; however, they argue that they weaken the populations' ability to maintain themselves even in less damaging cases.…”

Phenological mismatches and the demography of solitary bees

“…WMD is considered one of the best phenological estimators [38] and has been widely used in previous studies (e.g. [39][40][41]). Dates were represented as the number of days from 1 July each year, and the weighted average of nesting or flowering date was calculated by multiplying each date by the relative abundance of nests or flowers in that date.…”

Germination and phenology assessment of two varieties of Caesalpinia pulcherrima

“…Este comportamiento fenológico concuerda con lo obtenido por Castro et al (2015) y Rojas y Torres (2009) sobre la floración y fructificación permanente con mínimas diferencias por las características ecológicas locales. Además, la fase de floración corta pudo haber afectado la sincronía floración-polinización de acuerdo con lo expuesto por Maglianesi et al (2020) para la selva húmeda de Costa Rica.…”

“…Rojas y Torres (2009) encontraron que la germinación depende de la calidad de la semilla (60 a 84%) y Hadi (2017) logró un 80% de germinación tras la escarificación y reposo en agua durante 12 h. Posteriormente, de 2 a 6 meses de edad, pueden establecerse en campo con una separación de 1,5 m (Vozzo, 2010). La floración y fructificación se alcanza a los 8 meses de edad, en condiciones húmedas y lugares soleados (Vozzo, 2010;Torres, 2009), generalmente con periodos de polinización sincrónicos (Maglianesi et al 2020). La especie presenta flores y vainas permanentes en la estación seca y mayor parte de la estación lluviosa (Vozzo, 2010), mientras que Fontanetti et al (2012) menciona que C. pulcherrima, florece dependiendo de la variedad (color rosa, naranja o amarillo).…”