Effects of elevation and microclimatic temperatures on butterfly butterfly-flower interaction networks in a Mediterranean mountain range
1. Researching the properties of mutualistic networks over environmental gradients is a promising but underexplored means to test how global change can affect ecosystem assembly and functioning. We examined how elevation and microclimate influenced butterfly-flower interaction networks at the hottes...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/388663 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/388663 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Global warming Mutualistic networks Plant–pollinator interactions Elevation gradient Ecological network dynamics Microclimatic variation Lepidoptera Iberian Peninsula Network robustness Sierra de Guadarrama |
| Resumo: | 1. Researching the properties of mutualistic networks over environmental gradients is a promising but underexplored means to test how global change can affect ecosystem assembly and functioning. We examined how elevation and microclimate influenced butterfly-flower interaction networks at the hottest time of year in a Mediterranean mountain range. 2. Through July 2023, we recorded weekly butterfly-flower interaction networknetworks from 36 transects in nine sites sites, across an 800 m elevation gradient in the Sierra de Guadarrama (Central SpainSpain). We quantified the connectance, nestedness, modularity and 27 robustness to species loss of networks, and related these descriptors using Generali Generalized Additive Mixed Models to elevation, microclimate temperature (modelled using Microclima), date and time of day. 3. The networks were dominated at all sites by one or two abundant butterfly and flower species, but these varied with elevation. Butterfly networks were more robust to plant species loss at higher elevations, where communities showed increased linkage density. Butterfly-plant networks became less nested at higher microclimatic temperatures in July. Network properties also varied through the day, with connectance decreasing markedly from morning to afternoon. 4. In the Mediterranean mountains studied, summer butterfly butterfly-flower interaction networks were more resilient to disturbance at high elevations and in cooler microclimates. Nectar availability could become an important limiting factor for insects in a warming climate, and understanding the mechanisms influencing the properties of flower visitor networks is therefore likely to become increasingly important for adapting the conservation of insects to climate change. |
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