Matteo Conti, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Andrea Ferrari, Paolo Gabrieli, Francesco Paone, Carlo Polidori, Daniele Sommaggio, Gianalberto Losapio
{"title":"Glacier retreat decreases mutualistic network robustness over spacetime","authors":"Matteo Conti, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Andrea Ferrari, Paolo Gabrieli, Francesco Paone, Carlo Polidori, Daniele Sommaggio, Gianalberto Losapio","doi":"10.1111/ecog.07558","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Glaciers are retreating worldwide at an ever‐increasing rate, exposing new ice‐free areas to ecological succession. This process leads to changes in biodiversity and potentially to novel species interactions. However, we still have a limited understanding of how glacier retreat influences species interaction networks, particularly the structure and robustness of mutualistic networks. After reconstructing plant–pollinator networks along a 140‐years chronosequence on a glacier foreland, we address the effects of glacier retreat on network structure and robustness. Our results show that the prevalence of different network motifs changes over spacetime, leading to a decrease of network robustness. With glacier retreat, mutualistic networks shift from highly connected with diverse specialist interactions to loosely connected with few generalist interactions. Furthermore, despite the turnover of plant species, we find that species structural roles remain constant over spacetime while depending on species identity. Our findings suggest that glacier retreat reshuffles mutualistic networks with motifs posing low robustness, leading to increased fragility. Understanding the assembly and breaking down of species interaction networks provides novel insights into the development and stability of novel, post‐glacial ecological systems facing glacier extinction.","PeriodicalId":51026,"journal":{"name":"Ecography","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecography","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07558","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Glaciers are retreating worldwide at an ever‐increasing rate, exposing new ice‐free areas to ecological succession. This process leads to changes in biodiversity and potentially to novel species interactions. However, we still have a limited understanding of how glacier retreat influences species interaction networks, particularly the structure and robustness of mutualistic networks. After reconstructing plant–pollinator networks along a 140‐years chronosequence on a glacier foreland, we address the effects of glacier retreat on network structure and robustness. Our results show that the prevalence of different network motifs changes over spacetime, leading to a decrease of network robustness. With glacier retreat, mutualistic networks shift from highly connected with diverse specialist interactions to loosely connected with few generalist interactions. Furthermore, despite the turnover of plant species, we find that species structural roles remain constant over spacetime while depending on species identity. Our findings suggest that glacier retreat reshuffles mutualistic networks with motifs posing low robustness, leading to increased fragility. Understanding the assembly and breaking down of species interaction networks provides novel insights into the development and stability of novel, post‐glacial ecological systems facing glacier extinction.
期刊介绍:
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