Historical climate-change influences modularity and nestedness of pollination networks

Bo Dalsgaard; Kristian Trøjelsgaard Nielsen; Ana M. Martín  González; David Bravo Nogues; Jeff  Ollerton; Theodora  Petanidou; Brody Steven Sandel; Matthias  Schleuning; Zhiheng  Wang; Carsten Rahbek; William J.  Sutherland; Jens-Christian Svenning; Jens Mogens Olesen

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x

Historical climate-change influences modularity and nestedness of pollination networks

Bo Dalsgaard, Kristian Trøjelsgaard Nielsen, Ana M. Martín González, David Bravo Nogues, Jeff Ollerton, Theodora Petanidou, Brody Steven Sandel, Matthias Schleuning, Zhiheng Wang, Carsten Rahbek, William J. Sutherland, Jens-Christian Svenning, Jens Mogens Olesen

Ecology and Evolution

84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The structure of species interaction networks is important for species coexistence, community stability and exposure of species to extinctions. Two widespread structures in ecological networks are modularity, i.e. weakly connected subgroups of species that are internally highly interlinked, and nestedness, i.e. specialist species that interact with a subset of those species with which generalist species also interact. Modularity and nestedness are often interpreted as evolutionary ecological structures that may have relevance for community persistence and resilience against perturbations, such as climate-change. Therefore, historical climatic fluctuations could influence modularity and nestedness, but this possibility remains untested. This lack of research is in sharp contrast to the considerable efforts to disentangle the role of historical climate-change and contemporary climate on species distributions, richness and community composition patterns. Here, we use a global database of pollination networks to show that historical climate-change is at least as important as contemporary climate in shaping modularity and nestedness of pollination networks. Specifically, on the mainland we found a relatively strong negative association between Quaternary climate-change and modularity, whereas nestedness was most prominent in areas having experienced high Quaternary climate-change. On islands, Quaternary climate-change had weak effects on modularity and no effects on nestedness. Hence, for both modularity and nestedness, historical climate-change has left imprints on the network structure of mainland communities, but had comparably little effect on island communities. Our findings highlight a need to integrate historical climate fluctuations into eco-evolutionary hypotheses of network structures, such as modularity and nestedness, and then test these against empirical data. We propose that historical climate-change may have left imprints in the structural organisation of species interactions in an array of systems important for maintaining biological diversity.

Original language	English
Journal	Ecography
Volume	36
Issue number	12
Pages (from-to)	1331-1340
Number of pages	10
ISSN	0906-7590
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x
Publication status	Published - Dec 2013

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10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x/abstract

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Dalsgaard, B., Nielsen, K. T., González, A. M. M., Nogues, D. B., Ollerton, J., Petanidou, T., Sandel, B. S., Schleuning, M., Wang, Z., Rahbek, C., Sutherland, W. J., Svenning, J-C., & Olesen, J. M. (2013). Historical climate-change influences modularity and nestedness of pollination networks. Ecography, 36(12), 1331-1340. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x

@article{d768ee759f954989a3a6cd26bb3febdc,

title = "Historical climate-change influences modularity and nestedness of pollination networks",

abstract = "The structure of species interaction networks is important for species coexistence, community stability and exposure of species to extinctions. Two widespread structures in ecological networks are modularity, i.e. weakly connected subgroups of species that are internally highly interlinked, and nestedness, i.e. specialist species that interact with a subset of those species with which generalist species also interact. Modularity and nestedness are often interpreted as evolutionary ecological structures that may have relevance for community persistence and resilience against perturbations, such as climate-change. Therefore, historical climatic fluctuations could influence modularity and nestedness, but this possibility remains untested. This lack of research is in sharp contrast to the considerable efforts to disentangle the role of historical climate-change and contemporary climate on species distributions, richness and community composition patterns. Here, we use a global database of pollination networks to show that historical climate-change is at least as important as contemporary climate in shaping modularity and nestedness of pollination networks. Specifically, on the mainland we found a relatively strong negative association between Quaternary climate-change and modularity, whereas nestedness was most prominent in areas having experienced high Quaternary climate-change. On islands, Quaternary climate-change had weak effects on modularity and no effects on nestedness. Hence, for both modularity and nestedness, historical climate-change has left imprints on the network structure of mainland communities, but had comparably little effect on island communities. Our findings highlight a need to integrate historical climate fluctuations into eco-evolutionary hypotheses of network structures, such as modularity and nestedness, and then test these against empirical data. We propose that historical climate-change may have left imprints in the structural organisation of species interactions in an array of systems important for maintaining biological diversity.",

author = "Bo Dalsgaard and Nielsen, {Kristian Tr{\o}jelsgaard} and Gonz{\'a}lez, {Ana M. Mart{\'i}n} and Nogues, {David Bravo} and Jeff Ollerton and Theodora Petanidou and Sandel, {Brody Steven} and Matthias Schleuning and Zhiheng Wang and Carsten Rahbek and Sutherland, {William J.} and Jens-Christian Svenning and Olesen, {Jens Mogens}",

year = "2013",

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doi = "10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x",

language = "English",

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journal = "Ecography",

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T1 - Historical climate-change influences modularity and nestedness of pollination networks

AU - Dalsgaard, Bo

AU - Nielsen, Kristian Trøjelsgaard

AU - González, Ana M. Martín

AU - Nogues, David Bravo

AU - Ollerton, Jeff

AU - Petanidou, Theodora

AU - Sandel, Brody Steven

AU - Schleuning, Matthias

AU - Wang, Zhiheng

AU - Rahbek, Carsten

AU - Sutherland, William J.

AU - Svenning, Jens-Christian

AU - Olesen, Jens Mogens

PY - 2013/12

Y1 - 2013/12

N2 - The structure of species interaction networks is important for species coexistence, community stability and exposure of species to extinctions. Two widespread structures in ecological networks are modularity, i.e. weakly connected subgroups of species that are internally highly interlinked, and nestedness, i.e. specialist species that interact with a subset of those species with which generalist species also interact. Modularity and nestedness are often interpreted as evolutionary ecological structures that may have relevance for community persistence and resilience against perturbations, such as climate-change. Therefore, historical climatic fluctuations could influence modularity and nestedness, but this possibility remains untested. This lack of research is in sharp contrast to the considerable efforts to disentangle the role of historical climate-change and contemporary climate on species distributions, richness and community composition patterns. Here, we use a global database of pollination networks to show that historical climate-change is at least as important as contemporary climate in shaping modularity and nestedness of pollination networks. Specifically, on the mainland we found a relatively strong negative association between Quaternary climate-change and modularity, whereas nestedness was most prominent in areas having experienced high Quaternary climate-change. On islands, Quaternary climate-change had weak effects on modularity and no effects on nestedness. Hence, for both modularity and nestedness, historical climate-change has left imprints on the network structure of mainland communities, but had comparably little effect on island communities. Our findings highlight a need to integrate historical climate fluctuations into eco-evolutionary hypotheses of network structures, such as modularity and nestedness, and then test these against empirical data. We propose that historical climate-change may have left imprints in the structural organisation of species interactions in an array of systems important for maintaining biological diversity.

AB - The structure of species interaction networks is important for species coexistence, community stability and exposure of species to extinctions. Two widespread structures in ecological networks are modularity, i.e. weakly connected subgroups of species that are internally highly interlinked, and nestedness, i.e. specialist species that interact with a subset of those species with which generalist species also interact. Modularity and nestedness are often interpreted as evolutionary ecological structures that may have relevance for community persistence and resilience against perturbations, such as climate-change. Therefore, historical climatic fluctuations could influence modularity and nestedness, but this possibility remains untested. This lack of research is in sharp contrast to the considerable efforts to disentangle the role of historical climate-change and contemporary climate on species distributions, richness and community composition patterns. Here, we use a global database of pollination networks to show that historical climate-change is at least as important as contemporary climate in shaping modularity and nestedness of pollination networks. Specifically, on the mainland we found a relatively strong negative association between Quaternary climate-change and modularity, whereas nestedness was most prominent in areas having experienced high Quaternary climate-change. On islands, Quaternary climate-change had weak effects on modularity and no effects on nestedness. Hence, for both modularity and nestedness, historical climate-change has left imprints on the network structure of mainland communities, but had comparably little effect on island communities. Our findings highlight a need to integrate historical climate fluctuations into eco-evolutionary hypotheses of network structures, such as modularity and nestedness, and then test these against empirical data. We propose that historical climate-change may have left imprints in the structural organisation of species interactions in an array of systems important for maintaining biological diversity.

U2 - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00201.x

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0906-7590

VL - 36

SP - 1331

EP - 1340

JO - Ecography

JF - Ecography

IS - 12

ER -

Historical climate-change influences modularity and nestedness of pollination networks

Abstract

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