Tandilia System grasslands as refuge for entomophilous plants diversity

SABATINO MALENA; HERRERA LORENA; MACEIRA NÉSTOR

Rosario

Congreso; IX International Rangeland Congress; 2011

Animal-mediated pollination is one of the essential ecosystem services provided to humankind. Disruption of plantpollinator interactions by habitat fragmentation can detrimentally affect the reproductive success of flowering plants, affecting ecological processes such as community productivity and stability, with major consequences for the maintenance of global biodiversity. In Tandilia system (Southern Pampas subregion), natural and semi-natural grasslands in principal hills (“sierras”) and in small hills patches (“cerrilladas”) still represent habitat refuges for biodiversity and for the maintenance of plant-pollinator interactions, contrasting with the agricultural matrix landscape that dominate the region (Herrera and Laterra, 2008). Habitat fragmentation of natural grasslands caused by agriculture could facilitate the ingression of exotic species into native pollination webs, altering web structure, with consequences for native species persistence. We assessed the importance of these grasslands for the maintenance of plant-pollinator interaction, analyzing how sierras and cerrilladas (hereafter fragments) area (a measure of habitat loss) affects entomophilous plants species (EPS) richness and whether native or exotic plants are differentially affected by fragment size.