Spatial turnover overrides temporal turnover in two plant-pollinator communities

Background/Question/Methods

In recent years, an extended body of literature has focused on the importance of temporal dynamics in shaping the structure of plant and pollinator communities and their interactions. This improvement from a previously static perspective to community analysis has allowed us to understand many of the ecological processes that shape these communities. However, a focus on temporal dynamics has led to a decreased attention to the spatial dynamics. Here, we use a dataset collected across two contrasting habitat types in N and SW Spain, mountain grasslands and the understory of sparse pine forests. We collected data across five sites in each area, and weekly throughout the full flowering season at each area for two consecutive years.

Results/Conclusions

Our results show that spatial differences in species composition and species individual roles led to significant changes in interaction composition. We find that interaction turnover was much larger across space than time, demonstrating that the spatial context leads to a significant rewiring of interactions. Our study shows significant spatial and temporal dynamics that we are currently far from understanding and that explain why predicting interactions is still a failed subject in ecology.