How flexible are species' roles within plant-pollinator networks? A within-season temporal perspective

Ecological communities are characterized not only by the identities and abundances of their species, but also by the interactions among these species. Interspecific interactions often change rapidly through time, as individual organisms transition through stages of their life histories and as seasons progress. I examine the short-term flexibility in aspects of network structure and in individual species interactions that contribute to that structure. A short-term temporal perspective reveals substantial flexibility in the contributions of individual species interactions to networks, and corresponding changes in network structure. These details are captured incompletely or not at all with a temporally-static perspective.