The effect of species role and trait-matching on plant fitness in a plant-hummingbird interaction network

• Published in: Flora. Morphologie, Geobotanik, Oekophysiologie Vol. 305; p. 152348
• Main Authors: Bustos, Analí, Wüest, Rafael O., Graham, Catherine H., Varassin, Isabela G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier GmbH 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Atlantic forest; Centrality; conspecificity; corolla; flora; forests; Interaction networks; Plant fitness; pollen; pollen flow; Pollination; pollinators; species; Interaction networks; Atlantic forest; Plant fitness; Centrality; Pollination
• ISSN: 0367-2530; 1618-0585
• DOI: 10.1016/j.flora.2023.152348

•Time-lapse cameras were used to monitor species and individual-based networks.•Plants with lower centrality presented higher fitness in individual-based networks.•Plants with lower selectivity presented higher fitness in individual-based networks.•An individual-based network is a useful tool to understand plant fitness. In animal-pollinated plants, fitness is affected by pollinator attraction and plant-pollinator trait matching. Plant-pollinator interactions are often characterized using metrics derived from mutualistic networks, such as centrality and interaction selectivity. This approach often focuses on the species level, thus neglecting significant among-individual variation in attracting foraging pollinators and associated fitness consequences for plants. Here, we tested if centrality and interaction selectivity were related to fitness at the species and the individual level for 14 hummingbird-pollinated plant species in the Atlantic Forest. In addition, we tested if plant-pollinator trait-matching influenced plant fitness. At the species-level, we did not find a relationship between plant fitness and centrality nor interaction selectivity; we found instead that plant fitness increased with higher trait-matching between bill and corolla lengths. At the individual-level we found that individuals with higher centrality values produced less seeds, likely due to lower quality in pollen deposition. Moreover, individuals with a lower interaction selectivity also produced more seeds, probably because of higher conspecific pollen flow. Our results show that individual position and interaction selectivity within pollination networks may have important implications for pollination effectiveness and hence plant fitness.