小柯机器人

美国普林斯顿大学Christopher A. Johnson等研究人员发现，对传粉者的竞争会破坏植物共存的稳定性。相关论文于2022年7月20日在线发表于国际学术期刊《自然》。

据研究人员介绍，对传粉者在全球范围内减少的担忧加剧了对其在维持植物多样性方面作用的调查。理论预测，对传粉者的竞争可以通过提供生态位分化的机会来稳定植物物种之间的相互作用，同时也可以推动有利于排斥的竞争不平衡。

Title: Competition for pollinators destabilizes plant coexistence

Author: Johnson, Christopher A., Dutt, Proneet, Levine, Jonathan M.

Issue&Volume: 2022-07-20

Abstract: Mounting concern over the global decline of pollinators has fuelled calls for investigating their role in maintaining plant diversity1,2. Theory predicts that competition for pollinators can stabilize interactions between plant species by providing opportunities for niche differentiation3, while at the same time can drive competitive imbalances that favour exclusion4. Here we empirically tested these contrasting effects by manipulating competition for pollinators in a way that predicts its long-term implications for plant coexistence. We subjected annual plant individuals situated across experimentally imposed gradients in neighbour density to either ambient insect pollination or a pollen supplementation treatment alleviating competition for pollinators. The vital rates of these individuals informed plant population dynamic models predicting the key theoretical metrics of species coexistence. Competition for pollinators generally destabilized the interactions between plant species, reducing the proportion of pairs expected to coexist. Interactions with pollinators also influenced the competitive imbalances between plant species, effects that are expected to strengthen with pollinator decline, potentially disrupting plant coexistence. Indeed, results from an experiment simulating pollinator decline showed that plant species experiencing greater reductions in floral visitation also suffered greater declines in population growth rate. Our results reveal that competition for pollinators may weaken plant coexistence by destabilizing interactions and contributing to competitive imbalances, information critical for interpreting the impacts of pollinator decline. Competition for pollinators weakens plant coexistence by destabilizing interactions between plant species; this is crucial for determining the effects of the decline in pollinators.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04973-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04973-x

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html