New insights into plants co-existence in species-rich communities: The pollination interaction perspective

摘要

QuestionsIn animal-mediated pollination, pollinators can be regarded as a limiting resource for which entomophilous plant species might interact to assure pollination, an event pivotal for their reproduction and population maintenance. At community level, spatially aggregated co-flowering species can thus be expected to exhibit suitable suites of traits to avoid competition and ensure pollination. We explored the problem by answering the following questions: (1) are co-flowering species specialized on different guilds of pollinators; (2) do co-flowering pollinator-sharing species segregate spatially; and (3) do co-flowering pollinator-sharing species that diverge in anther position spatially aggregate more than those that converge in anther position?