REDPOL

The analysis techniques for trophic networks which have recently been applied to the interactions between plants and pollinators have given the result of pollination networks with a high degree of cohesion and nesting, a low number of extreme generalists, a surprisingly high number of specialists and a high degree of asymmetry among the partners in the interaction.

 

This project analyzes how inter-annual phenological and demographic variability influences the structure of the pollination network in a Mediterranean shrub community. In a cohesive system, specific changes in interactions would be expected to have little effect.

 

Pollinator communities are characterized by a large number of rare species. This rarity causes them to appear as highly specialized in the samplings. An attempt is made to correct this bias by analyzing the grains of pollen in the body-pollen loads of the pollinators to obtain a fuller picture of the patterns of interaction which is expected to reveal an increased degree of generalism in the network.

 

Various categories of "proscribed" interactions (phenological, structural and trophic) are also defined as limiting the degree of connectivity of the network, and the relation is analyzed between the body size of the various groups of pollinators (as an estimate of the trophic requirements) and the production of pollen and nectar by flowers. We hope thereby to explain much of the structure of the network.