Wide road verges have a critical role in the conservation of plant-pollinator networks in intensively managed agroecosystems

MONASTEROLO MARCOS; DEVOTO MARIANO; POGGIO SANTIAGO

Palma, Mallorca

Simposio; V Symposium on ecological networks; 2021

CSIC-University of Balearic Islands

Landscape fragmentation and agricultural practices can affect plant-pollinator communities that linear landscape elements (such as road verges) host in agroecosystems. To assess the role of road verges in sustaining plant-pollinator networks, we studied twenty portions of road verges in two consecutive field seasons (2014-2015) in the Argentine Pampas. We considered the features of road verges at three different scales of observation: width of the road verges (patch scale), adjacent field use (community scale), and landscape heterogeneity (landscape scale). We assessed the influence of these features on plant-pollinator networks. Species composition between road verges was similar and unique interactions were rare; accordingly, plant-pollination networks were robust and relatively stable to anthropic disturbances. Verge width, a patch scale feature, was the most influential, as wider verges had higher interaction richness and generality of flower visitors. At landscape scale, the evenness of interactions decreased with higher landscape diversity. Our study shows that the conservation of road verges helps to sustain complex and functional plant-pollination networks in intensively managed agroecosystems.