Network structure and phylogenetic signal in an artificially assembled plant-pollinator community

TL;DR

This study investigates how the phylogenetic relationships among bees influence the nested structure of plant-pollinator networks, suggesting that evolutionary constraints on diets contribute to community organization.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that phylogenetic constraints on bee diets influence network nestedness, using an artificial community to isolate this effect.

Findings

Network properties align with phylogenetic influence on diet range

Nestedness may be driven by biochemical constraints linked to bee evolution

Chemical ecology techniques can enhance understanding of community structure

Abstract

Community ecologists are principally occupied with the proposition that natural assemblages of species exhibit orderliness and with identifying its causes. Plant-pollinator networks exhibit a variety of orderly properties, one of which is 'nestedness'. Nestedness has been attributed to various causes, but we propose a further influence arising from the phylogenetic structure of the biochemical constraints on the pollen diets of bees. We use an artificial assemblage as an opportunity to isolate the action of this mechanism. The properties of the network that we studied are consistent with the proposition that nestedness is caused by the phylogeny of diet range in bees, but the claim is preliminary and we propose that valuable progress in understanding plant-pollinator systems may be made through applying the techniques of chemical ecology at the community scale.