CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

A frequent observation in plant-animal mutualistic networks is that abundant species tend to be more generalized, interacting with a broader range of interaction partners than rare species. Uncovering the causal relationship between abundance and generalization has been hindered by a chicken-and-egg dilemma: is generalization a by-product of being abundant, or does high abundance result from generalization? Here we analyze a database of plant-pollinator and plant-seed disperser networks, and provide strong evidence that the causal link between the abundance and generalization is uni-directional. Specifically, species appear to be generalists because they are more abundant, but the converse, that is, that species become more abundant because they are generalists, is not supported by our analysis. Furthermore, null model analyses suggest that abundant species interact with many other species simply because they are more likely to encounter potential interaction partners.