The landscape heterogeneity effects on the functional diversity of interacting insects and plants and on their floral visitation networks

O aumento da heterogeneidade da paisagem acompanhado de aumento de conectividade e de quantidades suficientes de ambientes naturais afeta positivamente a diversidade de insetos, principalmente abelhas. Isso ocorre devido ao aumento da diversidade de recursos na paisagem e da facilidade de acesso a eles pelos insetos. No entanto, são raros os estudos que consideram a relação entre heterogeneidade da paisagem e a diversidade funcional e as interações ecológicas estabelecidas entre seres vivos em ambientes tropicais. Funções ecossistêmicas importantes para a manutenção de florestas tropicais e para a produção de alimentos, como a polinização biótica por insetos, são estruturadas a partir das interações entre plantas e insetos visitantes florais. Sabendo disso, nosso objetivo foi analisar como a heterogeneidade de paisagens da Mata Atlântica afeta a diversidade funcional de insetos e plantas em interações de visitação floral e as suas redes de visitação floral. Foram estudadas 30 paisagens da Mata Atlântica, onde 56 amostras de insetos e plantas em interação foram coletadas. Os resultados indicaram que o aumento da heterogeneidade da paisagem tem um efeito positivo para a diversidade funcional de insetos e plantas, desde que acompanhado de quantidades equilibradas de cada tipo de ambiente, altos níveis de conectividade e mudanças graduais entre ambientes em contato. Isso não foi observado para as redes de visitação floral, que ficaram mais generalistas, maiores e menos robustas com o aumento da heterogeneidade da paisagem em níveis mais locais. Esses resultados enfatizam a importância de se considerar funcionalmente a paisagem, analisando não só sua estrutura, mas os organismos e processos ecológicos que se deseja preservar ao propor medidas mais efetivas de conservação da biodiversidade na região da Mata Atlântica.Increases in landscape heterogeneity when accompanied by increases in connectivity and enough natural environments positively affect the diversity of insects, especially bees. This happens due to the increased diversity of resources in the landscape and their easy access by insects. However, studies that consider the relationship between landscape heterogeneity and functional diversity and the ecological interactions established between organisms in tropical environments are rare. Important ecosystem functions for the maintenance of tropical forests and food production, such as biotic pollination by insects, are structured from the interactions between plants and floral visiting insects. Thus, we aimed to understand how the heterogeneity of Atlantic Forest landscapes affects the functional diversity of insects and plants in floral visitation interactions and their floral visitation networks. We studied 30 Atlantic Forest landscapes, where we collected 56 samples of interacting insects and plants. Our results indicated that increases in landscape heterogeneity had a positive effect on the functional diversity of insects and plants when accompanied by a balanced amount of each type of environment, good levels of connectivity and gradual changes between adjacent environments. This was not observed for floral visitation networks, which became more generalist, larger and less robust with increasing landscape heterogeneity in more local levels. These results emphasize the importance of considering the landscape functionally, analysing not only its structure, but also the organisms and ecological processes that are desired to be preserved by proposing more effective measures for the conservation of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest region

Atlantic flower–invertebrate interactions: A data set of occurrence and frequency of floral visits

Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed of the interactions between those partners leads to a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors on ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, costly and time-consuming, especially in the highly diverse tropics. We aimed to provide a comprehensive repository of available flower–invertebrate interaction information for the Atlantic Forest, a South American tropical forest domain. Data were obtained from published works and “gray literature,” such as theses and dissertations, as well as self-reports by co-authors. The data set has ~18,000 interaction records forming 482 networks, each containing between one and 1061 interaction links. Each network was sampled for about 200 h or less, with few exceptions. A total of 641 plant genera within 136 different families and 39 orders were reported, with the most abundant and rich families being Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae. Invertebrates interacting with these plants were all arthropods from 10 orders, 129 families, and 581 genera, comprising 2419 morphotypes (including 988 named species). Hymenoptera was the most abundant and diverse order, with at least six times more records than the second-ranked order (Lepidoptera). The complete data set shows Hymenoptera interacting with all plant orders and also shows Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera to be important nodes. Among plants, Asterales and Fabales had the highest number of interactions. The best sampled environment was forest (~8000 records), followed by pastures and crops. Savanna, grasslands, and urban environments (among others) were also reported, indicating a wide range of approaches dedicated to collecting flower–invertebrate interaction data in the Atlantic Forest domain. Nevertheless, most reported data were from forest understory or lower strata, indicating a knowledge gap about flower–invertebrate interactions at the canopy. Also, access to remote regions remains a limitation, generating sampling bias across the geographical range of the Atlantic Forest. Future studies in these continuous and hard-to-access forested areas will yield important new information regarding the interactions between flowers and invertebrates in the Atlantic Forest. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set. Please cite this data paper if the data are used in publications and teaching events.Fil: Boscolo, Danilo. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil. National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution; BrasilFil: Nobrega Rodrigues, Bárbara. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil. National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution; BrasilFil: Ferreira, Patrícia Alves. Universidade Federal do São Carlos; Brasil. National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution; BrasilFil: Lopes, Luciano Elsinor. Universidade Federal do São Carlos; Brasil. National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution; BrasilFil: Tonetti, Vinicius Rodrigues. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Reis dos Santos, Isabela Cristhina. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Hiruma Lima, Juliana Akemi. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Nery, Laura. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Baptista de Lima, Karoline. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Perozi, Jéssica. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Freitas, André Victor Lucci. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Felipe Viana, Blandina. Universidade Federal da Bahia; Brasil. National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution; BrasilFil: Antunes Carvalho, Caio. Universidade Federal Fluminense; BrasilFil: Amorim, Dalton de Souza. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Freitas de Oliveira, Favízia. Universidade Federal da Bahia; Brasil. National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution; BrasilFil: Groppo, Milton. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Absy, Maria Lúcia. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: de Almeida Scabbia, Renata Jimenez. Universidade de Mogi Das Cruzes; BrasilFil: Alves Araújo, Anderson. Universidade Federal da Bahia; BrasilFil: de Amorim, Felipe Wanderley. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Antiqueira, Pablo Augusto Poleto. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Antonini, Yasmine. Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto; BrasilFil: Aoki, Camila. Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul; BrasilFil: dos Santos Aragão, Daniele. Universidade do Estado da Bahia; BrasilFil: Balbino, Tais Cristina Teixeira. Universidade do Estado da Bahia; BrasilFil: da Silva Ferreira Bandeira, Michele. Universidade do Estado da Bahia; BrasilFil: Barbosa, Bruno Corrêa. Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora; BrasilFil: de Vasconcellos Barbosa, Maria Regina. Universidade Federal Da Paraíba; BrasilFil: Machado de Souza, Tatiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. - Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural; ArgentinaFil: Galetto, Leonardo. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentin