TY - JOUR
T1 - Specialization of mutualistic interaction networks decreases toward tropical latitudes
AU - Schleuning, Matthias
AU - Fründ, Jochen
AU - Klein, Alexandra-Maria
AU - Abrahamczyk, Stefan
AU - Alarcón, Ruben
AU - Albrecht, Matthias
AU - Andersson, Georg K.S.
AU - Bazarian, Simone
AU - Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
AU - Bommarco, Riccardo
AU - Dalsgaard, Bo
AU - Dehling, D. Matthias
AU - Gotlieb, Ariella
AU - Hagen, Melanie
AU - Hickler, Thomas
AU - Holzschuh, Andrea
AU - Kaiser-Bunbury, Christopher
AU - Kreft, Holger
AU - Morris, Rebecca J.
AU - Sandel, Brody Steven
AU - Sutherland, William J.
AU - Svenning, Jens-Christian
AU - Tscharntke, Teja
AU - Watts, Stella
AU - Weiner, Christiane N.
AU - Werner, Michael
AU - Williams, Neal M.
AU - Winqvist, Camilla
AU - Dormann, Carsten F.
AU - Blüthgen, Nico
N1 - Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Species-rich tropical communities are expected to be more specialized than their temperate counterparts [1-3]. Several studies have reported increasing biotic specialization toward the tropics [4-7], whereas others have not found latitudinal trends once accounting for sampling bias [8, 9] or differences in plant diversity [10, 11]. Thus, the direction of the latitudinal specialization gradient remains contentious. With an unprecedented global data set, we investigated how biotic specialization between plants and animal pollinators or seed dispersers is associated with latitude, past and contemporary climate, and plant diversity. We show that in contrast to expectation, biotic specialization of mutualistic networks is significantly lower at tropical than at temperate latitudes. Specialization was more closely related to contemporary climate than to past climate stability, suggesting that current conditions have a stronger effect on biotic specialization than historical community stability. Biotic specialization decreased with increasing local and regional plant diversity. This suggests that high specialization of mutualistic interactions is a response of pollinators and seed dispersers to low plant diversity. This could explain why the latitudinal specialization gradient is reversed relative to the latitudinal diversity gradient. Low mutualistic network specialization in the tropics suggests higher tolerance against extinctions in tropical than in temperate communities.
AB - Species-rich tropical communities are expected to be more specialized than their temperate counterparts [1-3]. Several studies have reported increasing biotic specialization toward the tropics [4-7], whereas others have not found latitudinal trends once accounting for sampling bias [8, 9] or differences in plant diversity [10, 11]. Thus, the direction of the latitudinal specialization gradient remains contentious. With an unprecedented global data set, we investigated how biotic specialization between plants and animal pollinators or seed dispersers is associated with latitude, past and contemporary climate, and plant diversity. We show that in contrast to expectation, biotic specialization of mutualistic networks is significantly lower at tropical than at temperate latitudes. Specialization was more closely related to contemporary climate than to past climate stability, suggesting that current conditions have a stronger effect on biotic specialization than historical community stability. Biotic specialization decreased with increasing local and regional plant diversity. This suggests that high specialization of mutualistic interactions is a response of pollinators and seed dispersers to low plant diversity. This could explain why the latitudinal specialization gradient is reversed relative to the latitudinal diversity gradient. Low mutualistic network specialization in the tropics suggests higher tolerance against extinctions in tropical than in temperate communities.
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2012.08.015
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2012.08.015
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 22981771
VL - 22
SP - 1925
EP - 1931
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
SN - 0960-9822
IS - 20
ER -