The specialization continuum in pollination systems: diversity of concepts and implications for ecology, evolution and conservation

Armbruster, W. Scott

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12783

Cited by 149 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 146 publications

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“…A considerable amount of research has been conducted, and dissimilar views expressed, over the past 30 years concerning the specialization-generalization continuum in plant-pollinator interactions (Jordano 1987;Waser et al 1996;Fenster et al 2004, Brosi 2016) and has recently been reviewed and discussed by Armbruster (2016) who describes it as "central to our thinking, not just about the ecology of plant-pollinator interactions and pollinator services, but also about reproductive isolation, speciation, extinction and assembly of communities". Clearly, these discussions must also therefore be central to our thinking about why we need to conserve pollinators.…”

Section: The Specialization-generalization Continuummentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinator Diversity: Distribution, Ecological Function, and Conservation

Ollerton

2017

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst.

518

429

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By facilitating plant reproduction, pollinators perform a crucial ecological function that supports the majority of the world's plant diversity, and associated organisms, and a significant fraction of global agriculture. Thus pollinators are simultaneously vital to supporting both natural ecosystems and human food security, which is a unique position for such a diverse group of organisms.The past couple of decades have seen unprecedented interest in pollinators and pollination ecology, stimulated in part by concerns over the decline of pollinator abundance and diversity in some parts of the world. This review synthesizes what is currently understood about the taxonomic diversity of organisms that are known to act as pollinators; their distribution in both deep time and present space; the importance of their diversity for ecological function (including agro-ecology); changes to diversity and abundance over more recent timescales, including introduction of non-native species, and a discussion of arguments for conserving their diversity.

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Section: The Specialization-generalization Continuummentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollinator Diversity: Distribution, Ecological Function, and Conservation

Ollerton

2017

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst.

518

429

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“…For instance, the obligate yucca moth pollinator Tegeticula cassandra was the most important determinant of fruit set for the plant Yucca filamentosa across communities that varied in the abundance of two florivore species (Althoff et al, 2005). However, specialization can be difficult to assess, as phenotypic specialization does not always reflect ecological specialization (Waser et al, 1996;Vamosi et al, 2014;Armbruster, 2017).…”

Section: The Effects Of Community Composition On Patterns Of In Situ mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological sorting and character displacement contribute to the structure of communities ofClarkiaspecies

Eisen

Geber

2018

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Despite long-standing interest in the evolutionary ecology of plants that share pollinators, few studies have explored how these interactions may affect communities during both community assembly (ecological sorting) and through ongoing, in situ evolution (character displacement), and how the effects of these interactions may change with community context. To determine if communities display patterns consistent with ecological sorting, we assessed the frequency of co-occurrence of four species of Clarkia in the southern Sierra foothills (Kern County, CA, USA). To investigate potential character displacement, we measured pollination-related traits on plants grown in a greenhouse common garden from seed collected in communities with one, two or four Clarkia species. Among the four species of Clarkia in this region, the two species that are often found in multi-species communities also co-occur with one another more frequently than expected under a null model. This pattern is consistent with ecological sorting, although further investigation is needed to determine the role of pollinators in shaping community assembly. Patterns of trait variation in a common garden suggest that these two species have diverged in floral traits and converged in flowering time where they co-occur, which is consistent with character displacement. Trait variation across community types also suggests that the process and outcome of character displacement may vary with community context. Because community context appears to affect both the direction and magnitude of character displacement, change in more species-rich communities may not be predictable from patterns of change in simpler communities.

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“…The most likely impact of species loss on network properties is a loss of specialized interactions over generalized interactions (Aizen et al 2012). Floral specialization has been linked to species diversity and disparity (phenotypic diversity) of ecological communities, as well as community structure and resilience (Armbruster 2017). Regarding well-established specialization indices, a loss of specialized interactions removes poorly connected specialists (increased connectance) and puts more weight on opportunistic interactions from the remaining generalists (decreased degree of network-wide specialization; Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partitioning wild bee and hoverfly contributions to plant–pollinator network structure in fragmented habitats

Jauker

Graß

et al. 2019

Ecology

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The risk of ecosystem function degradation with biodiversity loss has emerged as a major scientific concern in recent years. Possible relationships between taxonomic diversity and magnitude and stability of ecosystem processes build upon species' functional characteristics, which determine both susceptibility to environmental change and contribution to ecosystem properties. The functional diversity within communities thus provides a potential buffer against environmental disturbance, especially for properties emerging from interactions among species. In complex plant–pollinator networks, distantly related taxa spanning a great trait diversity shape network architecture. Here, we address the question of whether network properties are maintained after habitat loss by complementary contributions of phylogenetically distant pollinator taxa. We quantified contributions of wild bees and hoverflies to network structure (connectance, network specialization, specialization asymmetry) in 32 calcareous grassland fragments varying in size. Although hoverflies are often regarded less susceptible to environmental change than wild bees, species richness of both taxa was similarly affected by habitat loss. The associated loss of 80% of interactions resulted in small and tightly connected networks, which was more strongly attributed to wild bee loss than hoverfly loss. Networks in small fragments were less specialized due to equivalent losses of species and interactions in both pollinators and plants. Because wild bee and hoverfly loss contributed similarly to declining network specialization, we conclude that trait diversity among distantly related pollinators does not necessarily provide insurance against functional homogenization during community disassembly following habitat loss.

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The specialization continuum in pollination systems: diversity of concepts and implications for ecology, evolution and conservation

Cited by 149 publications

References 146 publications

Pollinator Diversity: Distribution, Ecological Function, and Conservation

Pollinator Diversity: Distribution, Ecological Function, and Conservation

Ecological sorting and character displacement contribute to the structure of communities ofClarkiaspecies

Partitioning wild bee and hoverfly contributions to plant–pollinator network structure in fragmented habitats

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