The future of plant–pollinator diversity: Understanding interaction networks across time, space, and global change

Abstract

Structural analysis of plant-pollinator networks has revealed remarkably high species and interaction diversity and highlighted the species important for pollination services. Although techniques to analyze plant-pollinator networks began to emerge a decade ago, the characterization of spatiotemporal variation of interactions is still in its infancy. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of spatial and temporal variation in plant-pollinator interactions is important for both basic and applied questions in community structure and function, the evolution of floral traits, and the development of optimal conservation strategies. Here we review observational, theoretical, and experimental studies of temporal and spatial variation in plant-pollinator interaction networks to establish a foundation for future studies to incorporate perspectives in spatiotemporal variation. Such perspectives are crucial given the rapid environmental changes associated with habitat loss, climate change, and biological invasions, which we discuss in this context. The inherent plasticity of plant-pollinator interactions and network structure suggests that many species should be able to persist by responding to environmental changes quickly, even though the identity of their mutualistic partners may change.