DOI: 10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhs0
title: Pollen essential amino acids shape bat-flower interaction networks

description: Although pollen consumption by phytophagous bats has long been documented,
 the role of its protein and amino acid content in driving plant–pollinator
 interactions remains largely overlooked. Since animals can synthesise
 non-essential amino acids (NEAA) but rely on dietary for essential amino
 acids (EAA), pollen may serve as a reward through an amino acid
 composition that is tailored to the nutritional demands of pollinators.
 This study examines how pollen protein and amino acid composition
 influence year-round and seasonal bat-flower interaction networks in the
 Pantanal floodplain through extensive, long-term, bat-centred sampling. We
 predicted that EAA-richer plant species would play central roles within
 the networks by exhibiting a higher normalised degree (i.e., how many bat
 species a given plant species interact with) and greater interaction
 strength (i.e., how intense the interactions are) in the network. The
 year-round network consisted of eight plant species with chiropterophilous
 traits and 12 bat species from five feeding guilds. Protein content in the
 pollen of chiropterophilous plants ranged from 12% to 34%, with all
 essential and most non-essential amino acids present. Bats from all guilds
 interacted more frequently with plants whose pollen was richer in EAA, but
 notably more so with insectivorous and carnivorous bats during the dry
 season. In contrast, nectarivorous, frugivorous, and omnivorous bats
 maintained interactions year-round with a full range of plant species. The
 year-round bat–flower interaction network showed low specialisation H2’ =
 0.29) and modularity (M = 0.28), forming four distinct modules. In this
 network, the two plants with the highest richness of EAA formed separate
 modules and interacted with more bat species. Moreover, the richness of
 EAA in pollen strongly and positively affected the plant species’
 normalised degree and interaction strength. The great richness of EAA and
 pollen protein biomass, along with the effect of pollen EAA richness on
 bat-flower interactions, may suggest that the pollen of chiropterophilous
 flowers has evolved in response to the dietary requirements of
 phytophagous bats. Our findings underscore the essential role of pollen,
 not just nectar, as a key reward for attracting flower-visiting bats, and
 therefore highlights pollen content as an important driver structuring
 pollination networks.
description: # Pollen essential amino acids shape bat-flower interaction networks
 Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhs0](10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhs0) ##
 Description of the data and file structure **Table 1**. Total protein (mg
 per 100 mg of pollen dry mass) and content of essential (EAA) and
 non-essential (NEAA) amino acids (mg per 100 mg of total protein) in the
 pollen of seven bat-pollinated plant species in the Pantanal wetland,
 southwestern Brazil. Values are means ± standard deviations from five
 subsamples per species. **Supplementary Table 3.** Number of faecal
 samples collected from 12 bat species containing pollen of eight plant
 species in the Pantanal wetland, southwestern Brazil. **Supplementary
 Table 4**. Number of bat captures, number of faecal samples provided, and
 number and percentage of faecal samples containing pollen from 12 bat
 species in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil. ### Files and variables 
 
 ### **Description:** Matrix of bat–flower interactions and the amino
 acids present in the plant species ##### Variables * **Table 1**. Plant
 species in the columns and amino acids in the rows. * **Supplementary
 Table 3:** Plant species in the columns and bat species in the rows. *
 **Supplementary Table 4**: Number of captured individuals and faecal
 samples in the columns and bat species in the rows. n/a in the data
 represent (not detected)