Abstract
Pollinators mediate interspecific and intraspecific plant–plant indirect interactions (competition vs. facilitation) via density-dependent processes, potentially shaping the dynamics of plant communities. However, it is still unclear which ecological drivers regulate density-dependent patterns, including scale, pollination niches (i.e., the main pollinator functional group) and floral attractiveness to pollinators. In this study, we conducted three-year field observations in Hengduan Mountains of southwest China. By gathering data for more than 100 animal-pollinated plant species, we quantified the effect (positive vs. negative) of conspecific and heterospecific flower density on pollination at two scales: plot-level (4 m2) and site-level (100–5000 m2). Then, we investigated how pollination niches and floral attractiveness to pollinators (estimated here as average per-flower visitation rates) modulated density-dependent pollination interactions. Pollinator visitation depended on conspecific and heterospecific flower density, with rare plants subjected to interspecific competition at the plot-level and interspecific facilitation at the site-level. Such interspecific competition at the plot-level was stronger for plants pollinated by diverse insects, while interspecific facilitation at the site-level was stronger for bee-pollinated plants. Moreover, we also found stronger positive conspecific density-dependence for plants with lower floral attractiveness at the site-level, meaning that they become more frequently visited when abundant. Our study indicates that the role of pollination in maintaining rare plants and plant diversity depends on the balance of density-dependent processes in species-rich communities. We show here that such balance is modulated by scale, pollination niches and floral attractiveness to pollinators, indicating the context-dependency of diversity maintenance mechanisms.
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The authors declare that, should the manuscript be accepted, the data supporting the results will be archived in an appropriate public repository (Dryad) and the data DOI will be included at the end of the article. And the data would be provided when the Subject-matter Editor request to see this data during review if deemed necessary.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Wen-Kui Dai, Jian Yang, Chui-Xu Wu, Jun Yang, Xing-Fu Li, Fa-Kun Ding, Ai-Wen Zhu, and Bin-Hui Xiao for field assistance, and Si-Chong Chen for helpful discussion.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31970253 and 31770255 to CFY, 31800194 and 32170241 to ZMY), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB31010000 to QFW).
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ZMY and CFY conceived and designed the experiments. ZMY, XFJ and YDH performed the experiments. ZMY, YC, YZ and PJB analyzed the data. ZMY and PJB led the writing the manuscript; QFW and AT revised it critically for important intellectual content; other authors provided editorial advice. All authors gave the final approval for publication.
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Ye, ZM., Jin, XF., He, YD. et al. The interplay between scale, pollination niche and floral attractiveness on density-dependent plant–pollinator interactions. Oecologia 203, 193–204 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05461-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05461-3