The role of intra-guild indirect interactions in assembling plant-pollinator networks

Understanding the assembly of plant-pollinator communities has become critical to their conservation given the rise of species invasions, extirpations, and species' range shifts. Over the course of assembly, colonizer establishment produces core interaction patterns, called motifs, which shape the trajectory of assembling network structure. Dynamic assembly models can advance our understanding of this process by linking the transient dynamics of colonizer establishment to long-term network development. In this study, we investigate the role of intra-guild indirect interactions and adaptive foraging in shaping the structure of assembling plant-pollinator networks by developing: 1) an assembly model that includes population dynamics and adaptive foraging, and 2) a motif analysis tracking the intra-guild indirect interactions of colonizing species throughout their establishment. We find that while colonizers leverage indirect competition for shared mutualistic resources to establish, adaptive foraging maintains the persistence of inferior competitors. This produces core motifs in which specialist and generalist species coexist on shared mutualistic resources which leads to the emergence of nested networks. Further, the persistence of specialists develops richer and less connected networks which is consistent with empirical data. Our work contributes new understanding and methods to study the effects of species' intra-guild indirect interactions on community assembly. Colonizer establishment produces fundamental building blocks that shape the structure of assembling pollination networks. In this model, while colonizers leverage indirect competition to establish, adaptive foraging by pollinators maintains species coexistence which produces nested networks.

Automated summary

Understanding the assembly of plant-pollinator communities is crucial for their conservation amidst increasing species invasions, extirpations, and range shifts. This study investigates the role of intra-guild indirect interactions and adaptive foraging in shaping the structure of plant-pollinator networks during assembly. The findings show that colonizers leverage indirect competition to establish, while adaptive foraging maintains species coexistence and produces nested networks.