Plant-Animal Mutualistic Networks: The Architecture of Biodiversity
Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and SystematicsPublished 1 December 2007Open access
Jordi Bascompte, Pedro Jordano
Citations1,705
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TL;DR
The mutually beneficial interactions between plants and their animal pollinators and seed dispersers have been paramount in the generation of Earth's biodiversity and understanding how coevolution proceeds in these highly diversified mutualisms among free-living species presents a conceptual challenge.
Abstract
The mutually beneficial interactions between plants and their animal pollinators and seed dispersers have been paramount in the generation of Earth's biodiversity. These mutualistic interactions often involve dozens or even hundreds of species that form complex networks of interdependences. Understanding how coevolution proceeds in these highly diversified mutualisms among free-living species presents a conceptual challenge. Recent work has led to the unambiguous conclusion that mutualistic networks are very heterogeneous (the bulk of the species have a few interactions, but a few species are much more connected than expected by chance), nested (specialists interact with subsets of the species with which generalists interact), and built on weak and asymmetric links among species. Both ecological variables (e.g., phenology, local abundance, and geographic range) and past evolutionary history may explain such network patterns. Network structure has important implications for the coexistence and stability of species as well as for the coevolutionary process. Mutualistic networks can thus be regarded as the architecture of biodiversity.
Keywords
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International Journal for ParasitologyNested assemblages resulting from host size variation: the case of endoparasite communities in fish hosts
95 Citations2001Robert Poulin, E. Tellervo Valtonen
Nested parasite communities were characterised by higher prevalence and intensities of infection than anti-nested communities; the two types of non-random communities did not differ with respect to parasite species richness, however.
Trends in Ecology & EvolutionEvolution of insect pollination and angiosperm diversification
84 Citations1992Olle Pellmyr
Progress in systematics and paleontology is providing much of the information needed to address the question to what extent the emergence of insect polination caused rapid diversification in the interacting organisms.
Cambridge University Press eBooksCoevolutionary Dynamics and the Conservation of Mutualisms
78 Citations2004Judith L. Bronstein, Ulf Dieckmann +1 more
An increased focus on interspecific interactions will enlighten efforts to conserve species and improve the ability to understand when species will and will not respond evolutionarily to conservation threats.
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