کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
5744359 1618215 2017 12 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Precipitation and the robustness of a plant and flower-visiting insect network in a xeric ecosystem
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه علوم زمین و سیارات فرآیندهای سطح زمین
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Precipitation and the robustness of a plant and flower-visiting insect network in a xeric ecosystem
چکیده انگلیسی
Complex networks of species interactions are integral to the stability of ecological communities. The responses of these networks to extreme environmental fluctuations are key to understanding the evolution of these networks and their roles in stabilizing ecological communities. From 2008 to 2009 we observed the effects of extreme differences in annual precipitation on a network of plants and flower-visiting insects in a xeric grassland. Significant decreases in plant and insect diversity in the dry year were mirrored by decreases in the number of network nodes and links. However, the relative density of network connections increased in the dry year and other important topological features, such as nestedness and modularity, were largely unchanged. The resilience of the network to node (plants or insect species) loss was high in both years. Though bees tend to dominate pollination communities in drier climes, we did not observe a shift in the relative richness of bee species in the dry year. Our results indicate that well-linked, drought-resistant plants are important to community resilience during ecologically challenging periods and that networks of plants and flowering-visiting insects may be robust to extreme climatic change, at least over short periods, as long as those critical, resilient hubs are protected.
ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Journal of Arid Environments - Volume 144, September 2017, Pages 48-59
نویسندگان
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