DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tb2rbp04f
title: Data from: Density-dependent dispersal strategy of pollinator moderates the adverse effect of habitat loss on plant reproduction

description: 1. Major challenges for plant conservation are predicting the effect of
 habitat loss on pollination success and plant reproduction potential. Most
 studies report that pollinator movement is affected by quantitative and
 spatial characteristics of landscapes. However, little is known about the
 role of pollinator movement, impacted by floral volatiles and intraspecies
 interaction, on plant reproduction in fragmented landscapes. 2. To clarify
 the effect of pollinator movement on plant reproduction relative to
 habitat loss, we developed an integrated model incorporating
 pollinator's foraging response with its dispersal process mediated by
 a density-dependent dispersal (DDD) strategy. This model performed better
 in capturing behaviorals response of pollinators than do current methods.
 The integrated model was verified with field results of pollinator
 visitation and plant reproduction of saltcedar (Tamarix chinensis)
 inhabiting the Yellow River Delta, and then was compared against a
 dispersal strategy called density-independent dispersal (DID). The model
 was applied to landscapes with various non-habitat percentage (NHP) to
 explore the effect of habitat loss on plant reproduction. 3. Results
 suggested that saltcedar populations differ in their responses to habitat
 loss, which depended on the spatial scales considered. At landscape scale,
 increasing NHP significantly inhibited the dispersion extent of floral
 volatiles and therefore reduced pollinator visitation and subsequent seed
 production, especially when NHP exceeded the critical threshold of 0.6.
 However, at patch scale, comparing with DID strategy, the DDD strategy
 enabled pollinators to increase their utilization of flowers by 43.42% and
 6.79% in low-density and distant plant patches, whereas their utilization
 was reduced by 7.75% and 2.24% in high-density and central patches,
 respectively. Plant reproduction was improved correspondingly in
 low-density and distant patches under different NHPs. 4. Consequently,
 habitat loss inhibits the volatiles dispersion and interferes with the
 foraging success of pollinators, a major factor influencing plant
 reproduction at landscape scale. At patch scale, adaptive utilization of
 pollinators exhibiting DDD strategy alleviates the negative effect of
 habitat loss on plant production and maintains plant population
 persistence. Since pollinator behavioral response is critical to plant
 reproduction, we recommend the use of the here-presented integrated model
 to assess the impact of habitat loss on plant reproduction.
description: Our data are saved as '.xlsx' file (which can be opened
 by Microsoft Excel program) and '.npy' files (which can be
 opened by NumPy package in Python program).  These data
 are multidimensional arrays, whose shapes respresent the different
 simulation scenarios, including six floral volatiles, six non-habitat
 percentages (NHPs), and six detection threshold of pollinators (Thpo). The
 shape of multidimensional arrays in each '.npy' file are
 described as follows,  as well as the scenarios it represented.