Phenological patterns and pollination network structure in a Venezuelan páramo: a community-scale perspective on plant-animal interactions

Pelayo, Roxibell C.; Soriano, Pascual J.; Márquez, Nelson; Navarro, Luis

doi:10.1080/17550874.2019.1675096

Cited by 20 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Range shifts presuppose niche conservatism, but also depend on the intrinsic dispersal ability of the taxa (Pelayo et al, 2019;Tovar et al, 2020). In organisms with limited seed dispersal such as Espeletia, other ways for migration are key (Cochrane et al, 2019).…”

Section: Range Losses In the Espeletia Complex Will Widespread Througmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

et al. 2020

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Section: Range Losses In the Espeletia Complex Will Widespread Througmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

et al. 2020

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“…For the páramos in particular, there is a daunting lack of understanding on the functionality of species within the community, let alone the functioning of the food web as a whole, precluding a better understanding of the species traits contributing to ES. Important contributions are currently being made to estimate páramo plant properties, such as freezing resistance, water relations, gas exchange characteristics ( Rada, Azócar & García-Núñez, 2019 ), soil temperature regulations ( Mora, Llambí & Ramírez, 2019 ), leaf water potential ( Sandoval, Rada & Sarmiento, 2019 ), pollination ( Pelayo et al, 2019 ), evapotranspiration ( Rodríguez-Morales et al, 2019 ), dispersal strategies ( Tovar et al, 2020 ), and biomass ( Cabrera, Samboni-Guerrero & Duivenvoorden, 2018 ; Cabrera & Duivenvoorden, 2020 ). Though relevant base-line knowledge, such approaches alone will be a huge endeavour to cover a representative proportion of the c. 4,700 plant species currently identified for the páramo ( Luteyn, 1999 ; Sklenář et al, 2005 ; Rangel-Ch, 2000 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem services show variable responses to future climate conditions in the Colombian páramos

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Tovar

Etherington

et al. 2021

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Background The páramos, the high-elevation ecosystems of the northern Andes, are well-known for their high species richness and provide a variety of ecosystem services to local subsistence-based communities and regional urbanizations. Climate change is expected to negatively affect the provision of these services, but the level of this impact is still unclear. Here we assess future climate change impact on the ecosystem services provided by the critically important páramos of the department of Boyacá in Colombia, of which over 25% of its territory is páramo. Methods We first performed an extensive literature review to identify useful species of Boyacá, and selected 103 key plant species that, based on their uses, support the provision of ecosystem services in the páramos. We collated occurrence information for each key species and using a Mahalanobis distance approach we applied climate niche modelling for current and future conditions. Results We show an overall tendency of reduction in area for all ecosystem services under future climate conditions (mostly a loss of 10% but reaching up to a loss of 40%), but we observe also increases, and responses differ in intensity loss. Services such as Food for animals, Material and Medicinal, show a high range of changes that includes both positive and negative outcomes, while for Food for humans the responses are mostly substantially negative. Responses are less extreme than those projected for individual species but are often complex because a given ecosystem service is provided by several species. As the level of functional or ecological redundancy between species is not yet known, there is an urgency to expand our knowledge on páramos ecosystem services for more species. Our results are crucial for decision-makers, social and conservation organizations to support sustainable strategies to monitor and mitigate the potential consequences of climate change for human livelihoods in mountainous settings.

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“…One of the few available studies on plant phenology and pollination at a community scale in the alpine tropics was carried out in the Venezuelan páramos between 3,000 and 4,200 m (Pelayo et al, 2019). This study showed that flowering occurs gradually from the beginning to the end of the rainy season (from May to November), with a low overlap of flowering between species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The few available studies on the reproductive ecology and pollination in the high tropical Andes reinforce the idea that these systems could be sensitive to the loss of species due to global changes, given that they are relatively poor in pollinator species and show high endemism (Ramos-Jiliberto et al, 2010;González and Loiselle, 2016;Pelayo et al, 2019). Analyses on plant phenology and reproductive aspects in the páramos have focused on very emblematic species such as the giant rosettes (Espeletia spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Phenology Dynamics and Pollination Networks in Summits of the High Tropical Andes: A Baseline for Monitoring Climate Change Impacts

et al. 2021

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Analyzing plant phenology and plant–animal interaction networks can provide sensitive mechanistic indicators to understand the response of alpine plant communities to climate change. However, monitoring data to analyze these processes is scarce in alpine ecosystems, particularly in the highland tropics. The Andean páramos constitute the coldest biodiversity hotspot on Earth, and their species and ecosystems are among the most exposed and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Here, we analyze for the first time baseline data for monitoring plant phenological dynamics and plant–pollinator networks along an elevation gradient between 4,200 and 4,600 m asl in three mountain summits of the Venezuelan Andes, which are part of the GLORIA monitoring network. We estimated the presence and density of plants with flowers in all the summits and in permanent plots, every month for 1 year. Additionally, we identified pollinators. We calculated a phenological overlap index between species. We summarized the plant–pollinator interactions as a bipartite matrix and represented a quantitative plant–pollinator network, calculating structural properties (grade, connectance, nestedness, and specialization). We also evaluated whether the overall network structure was influenced by differences in sampling effort, changes in species composition between summits, and phenology of the plant species. Finally, we characterized the pollination syndrome of all species. Flowering showed a marked seasonality, with a peak toward the end of the wet season. The overall phenological overlap index was low (0.32), suggesting little synchrony in flowering among species. Species richness of both plants and pollinators decreased along the elevation gradient. Flies, bumblebees, and hummingbirds were the most frequent pollinators in the network, while entomophily and anemophily were the prevailing pollination syndromes. The interaction network in all summits showed high connectance values, significant specialization (H2), and low nestedness. We did not find a significant effect of sampling effort, summit plant species composition, or plant phenology on network structure. Our results indicate that these high tropical alpine plant communities and their plant-pollination networks could be particularly vulnerable to the loss of species in climate change scenarios, given their low species richness and functional redundancy coupled with a high degree of specialization and endemism.

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Phenological patterns and pollination network structure in a Venezuelan páramo: a community-scale perspective on plant-animal interactions

Cited by 20 publications

References 53 publications

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

Ecosystem services show variable responses to future climate conditions in the Colombian páramos

Plant Phenology Dynamics and Pollination Networks in Summits of the High Tropical Andes: A Baseline for Monitoring Climate Change Impacts

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