Studying plant–pollinator interactions in a changing climate: A review of approaches

Abstract

Plant–pollinator interactions are potentially at risk due to climate change. Because of the spatial and temporal variation associated with the effects of climate change and the responses of both actors, research to assess this interaction requires creative approaches. This review focuses on assessments of plants’ and pollinators’ altered phenology in response to environmental changes, as phenology is one of the key responses. I reviewed research methods with the goal of presenting the wide diversity of available techniques for addressing changes in these interactions. Approaches ranged from use of historical specimens to multisite experimental community studies; while differing in depth of historical information and community interactions, all contribute to assessment of phenology changes. Particularly insightful were those studies that directly assessed the environmental changes across spatial and temporal scales and the responses of plants and pollinators at these scales. Longer-term studies across environmental gradients, potentially with reciprocal transplants, enable an assessment of climate impacts at both scales. While changes in phenology are well studied, the impacts of phenology changes are not. Future research should include approaches to address this gap.

Global warming and plant–pollinator mismatches

“…a failure to achieve an efficient interaction) hence putting plant and pollinator species at risk of extinction [7]. The number of studies demonstrating this effect is growing, and many different methods have been described to assess it empirically ( [8], reviewed in [9]).…”

“…Finally, we assess the likely ecological and evolutionary consequences, as well as factors that may buffer against the potential mismatches between plants and pollinators. Wrong time, wrong place: phenological and spatial mismatches Global warming can have a strong impact on the activity pattern and life cycle development of organisms [9]. Many phenological shifts have already been reported at the species level for the insect emergence (e.g.…”

Phenological shifts drive biodiversity loss in plant–pollinator networks

“…However, the consequences of phenological shifts and the 368 interaction disruptions remains to be understood at the community and ecosystem 369 levels. Our study contributes to filling a gap in the understanding of community level 370 effects of shifting phenologies in plant-pollinator interactions[50]. However, although371 we identified consistent responses from the analysis of some perturbed plant-pollinator 372 systems, our results show considerable differences among the studied networks.…”

“…could predict 48 species-specific persistence probability under phenological mismatch. 49 Materials and methods 50 Empirical networks 51 For conducting this study we used eight mutualistic plant-pollinator networks. Each 52 network corresponds to a community at a given location and during a sampling period.…”

Hoverfly Communities in Semi-Natural Grasslands, and their Role in Pollination

“…Conversely, increasing ambient temperature has been shown to have contrasting phenological responses in plants and their Dipteran pollinators in arctic ecosystems, significantly reducing the amount of time during the flowering season that plants can be successfully pollinated (Hoye et al 2013). The consequences for any change in peak hoverfly abundance and species-richness driven by climate change is therefore unclear, for while phenological change in invertebrate taxa have been widely observed (Pozsgai & Littlewood 2011;Kuhlmann et al 2012), the implications for plant pollinator interactions are not well understood (Byers 2017).…”