DOI: 10.5061/dryad.x95x69ppc
title: Successional and phenological effects on plant-floral visitor interaction networks of a tropical dry forest

description: 1. Plant-pollinator interactions are fundamental to ecosystem functioning;
 however, the role that succession and phenology have on these interactions
 is poorly understood, particularly in endangered tropical ecosystems. In
 highly diverse ecosystems such as tropical dry forests (TDF), variation in
 water and food availability determines the life cycles of animal
 pollinators. Therefore, understanding patterns of flowering phenology and
 plant-pollinator interactions across seasons in successional environments
 is key to maintaining and restoring TDF. 2. We analysed the functional
 dynamics of plant-floral visitor interactions at the community level
 across a successional gradient in a Mexican TDF. We evaluated changes in
 the diversity of blooming plant species and floral visitors, phenological
 patterns, interaction network metrics, and beta diversity among early,
 intermediate, and late successional stages, between dry and rainy seasons.
 3. We found a higher diversity of blooming plant species and a higher
 richness of animal species in the intermediate and late successional
 stages. Peak abundance of floral visitors overlapped with flowering peaks
 in the late successional stages, but this was not consistently the case in
 the early and intermediate stages. Plant-floral visitors networks differed
 in structure according to successional stage and season, but
 specialisation metrics were higher in late successional stages.
 Interaction networks were more dissimilar between dry and rainy seasons
 within successional stages than within seasons between successional
 stages, suggesting connectivity across successional sites during each
 season. In addition, closely related plant species do not share the same
 pollination systems in any successional stage. 4. Synthesis. Our results
 showed that plant-floral visitor interactions are dynamic and vary with
 flowering phenology and with successional changes in plant and animal
 diversity. Plant-floral visitor interactions were more diverse and
 specialised in the late successional stages. In the rainy season,
 differences in network structure among successional stages are due to
 interaction rewiring, while in the dry season, it is caused by species
 turnover. Our results demonstrate that seasonality plays a key role in
 community diversity and network structure and highlight the importance of
 conserving mature forests to ensure the maintenance of critical
 pollination interactions across all successional stages.
description: The dataset contains phenological and plant
 floral-visitor interaction information collected between 2008 and 2010. We
 recorded the interaction of blooming plant species and floral visitors in
 three ecological successional stages (i.e., early, intermediate and late
 successional stages), in a tropical dry forest of Chamela, Jalisco,
 Mexico. 
description: The data file is a CSV and can be opened in
 Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, or any other CSV
 viewer/editor. To follow the methods outlined in the manuscript, the data
 should then be processed using the R statistical computing
 software/language.