Structure and characteristics of plant-frugivore network in Guilin
Botanical Garden
Abstract
The interaction between plants and frugivores plays a critical role in
sustaining ecosystem function and community diversity, but little is
known about the structure of interaction networks between fruit plants
and frugivore birds in urban green spaces. We observed the interactions
between plants and birds throughout the year in the Guilin Botanical
Garden and assessed the characteristics of the total plant-frugivore and
seasonal networks. We also analyzed the relationship between the network
roles of species and ecological traits to explore the structure and
characteristics of the plant-frugivore network. The interactions between
a total of 14 frugivore birds and 13 fruit plant species were analyzed
in the study area, the autumn and winter interaction connections
contributed 38.79% and 33.15% to the total network, respectively. The
specialization (H2´), and interaction evenness (E2) of the network were
higher in spring and summer than that in autumn and winter. However,
connectance (C), nestedness, and interaction diversity (H2) were
contrary to the specialization and interaction evenness of the network.
Compared to the networks (N=1000) generated by the null model, the
observed network exhibited lower connectance (C), interaction
diversity(H2), interaction evenness (E2), and higher nestedness and
specialization (H2´). A correlation analysis combining ecological traits
and network roles showed that plants with black fruit had higher species
strength, whereas the other traits of plants and birds were not
significantly correlated with their network parameters.