The effects of the decline of a keystone plant species on a dune community plant-pollinator network

Dan Sandacz*, Pati Vitt, Tiffany M. Knight, Paul James Caradonna, Kayri Havens

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ecological communities are maintained through species interactions, and the resilience of species interactions is critical to the persistence of natural communities. Keystone species play outsized roles in maintaining species interaction networks, and within plant-pollinator communities are high priorities for conservation. The loss of a keystone plant from a plant-pollinator network is expected to cause changes to network structure and composition of pollinator species, with the potential to cause secondary losses of plants and pollinators. To understand how the unmanipulated decline of a keystone plant affects the structure and composition of its network, we studied the plant-pollinator interactions of a Lake Michigan dune plant community where the population of the keystone plant, Cirsium pitcheri, is in rapid decline. The network prior to C. pitcheri decline (2016) was compared to the network as C. pitcheri continued to decline (2021 and 2022) in response to habitat loss. We find evidence that the loss of C. pitcheri altered network structure such that the community may be more sensitive to perturbations. Furthermore, changes in the composition of pollinators were explained by species turnover to a greater extent than by interaction rewiring, including the loss of bumblebees. Short-term negative consequences based on the changes to network structure and composition might lead to long-term effects on the persistence of the dune community. Our study exemplifies that the decline of a keystone plant can have negative implications for conservation of a plant-pollinator community. Using an interaction network framework to assess plant-pollinator communities has potential to develop strategies for best conservation and restoration practices in habitats vulnerable to habitat loss and disturbance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1183976
JournalFrontiers in Conservation Science
Volume4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by Door County Land Trust to KH. Additional funding was provided by the Botanical Club of Wisconsin through the John Thomson 2021 Graduate Student Research Award and the Plant Biology and Conservation MS Student Travel Award through Northwestern University to DS. Acknowledgments We are grateful for support for this work from the Botanical Club of Wisconsin and Northwestern University to DS and the Door County Land Trust to KH. We thank Door County Land Trust for land access and supporting the ongoing restoration at Ship Canal Nature Preserve. We thank Elena Motivans-Švara and Leana Zoller, both of whom shared R code to help create the species strength figure and to calculate interaction turnover, respectively. We also thank Michael Kaster and Rina Talaba for their assistance with conducting pollinator observations.

Keywords

  • Cirsium pitcheri
  • habitat loss
  • keystone species
  • plant-pollinator network
  • species decline
  • species interactions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nature and Landscape Conservation

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