Plant and animal functional diversity drive mutualistic network assembly across an elevational gradient

Jörg Albrecht (), Alice Classen, Maximilian G. R. Vollstädt, Antonia Mayr, Neduvoto P. Mollel, David Schellenberger Costa, Hamadi I. Dulle, Markus Fischer, Andreas Hemp, Kim M. Howell, Michael Kleyer, Thomas Nauss, Marcell K. Peters, Marco Tschapka, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Katrin Böhning-Gaese and Matthias Schleuning
Additional contact information
Jörg Albrecht: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)
Alice Classen: University of Würzburg
Maximilian G. R. Vollstädt: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)
Antonia Mayr: University of Würzburg
Neduvoto P. Mollel: University of Bern
David Schellenberger Costa: University of Oldenburg
Hamadi I. Dulle: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)
Markus Fischer: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)
Andreas Hemp: University of Bayreuth
Kim M. Howell: University of Dar-es-Salaam
Michael Kleyer: University of Oldenburg
Thomas Nauss: University of Marburg
Marcell K. Peters: University of Würzburg
Marco Tschapka: University of Ulm
Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter: University of Würzburg
Katrin Böhning-Gaese: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)
Matthias Schleuning: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Species’ functional traits set the blueprint for pair-wise interactions in ecological networks. Yet, it is unknown to what extent the functional diversity of plant and animal communities controls network assembly along environmental gradients in real-world ecosystems. Here we address this question with a unique dataset of mutualistic bird–fruit, bird–flower and insect–flower interaction networks and associated functional traits of 200 plant and 282 animal species sampled along broad climate and land-use gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We show that plant functional diversity is mainly limited by precipitation, while animal functional diversity is primarily limited by temperature. Furthermore, shifts in plant and animal functional diversity along the elevational gradient control the niche breadth and partitioning of the respective other trophic level. These findings reveal that climatic constraints on the functional diversity of either plants or animals determine the relative importance of bottom-up and top-down control in plant–animal interaction networks.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05610-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05610-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05610-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().