DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bvq83bkdk
title: Individual flowering phenology shapes plant-pollinator interactions across ecological scales affecting plant reproduction

description: 1. The balance of pollination competition and facilitation amongst
 co-flowering plants and abiotic resource availability can modify plant
 species and individual reproduction. Floral resource succession and
 spatial heterogeneity modulate plant-pollinator interactions across
 ecological scales (individual plant, local assemblage, interaction network
 of agroecological infrastructure across the farm). Intraspecific variation
 in flowering phenology can modulate the precise level of spatio-temporal
 heterogeneity in floral resources, pollen donor density and pollinator
 interactions that a plant individual is exposed to, thereby affecting
 reproduction. 2. We tested how abiotic resources and multi-scale
 plant-pollinator interactions affected individual plant seed set,
 modulated by intraspecific variation in flowering phenology and
 spatio-temporal floral heterogeneity arising from agroecological
 infrastructure. We transplanted two focal insect-pollinated plant species
 (Cyanus segetum and Centaurea jacea, n = 288) into agroecological
 infrastructure (10 sown wildflower, 6 legume-grass strips) across a
 farm-scale experiment (125 ha). 3. We applied an individual-based
 phenologically explicit approach to match precisely the flowering period
 of plant individuals to the concomitant level of spatio-temporal
 heterogeneity in plant-pollinator interactions, potential pollen donors,
 floral resources and abiotic conditions (temperature, water, nitrogen). 4.
 Individual plant attractiveness, assemblage floral density and conspecific
 pollen donor density (C. jacea) improved seed set. Network linkage density
 increased focal species' seed set and modified the effect of local
 assemblage richness and abundance on C. segetum. Mutual dependence on
 pollinators in networks increased C. segetum seed set, while C. jacea seed
 set was greatest where both specialization on pollinators and mutual
 dependence was high. Abiotic conditions were of little or no importance to
 seed set. 5. Intra- and interspecific plant-pollinator interactions
 respond to spatio-temporal heterogeneity arising from agroecological
 management affecting wild plant species reproduction. The interplay of
 pollinator interactions within and between ecological scales affecting
 seed set implies a co-occurrence of pollinator-mediated facilitative and
 competitive interactions among plant species and individuals.
description: The data were collected in May-September 2019 on a farm-scale
 agroecological experiment (INRAE CA-SYS platform) in Burgundy, France
 (47°19'06.7"N 5°04'17.6"E), with the aim of studying
 the influences of multi-scale plant-pollinator interactions on wild plant
 reproduction in agroecological infrastructures. Each experimental unit in
 the dataset is an individual <em>C</em>.
 <em>segetum</em> (n = 144) or an individual
 <em>C</em>. <em>jacea</em> (n = 144) plant. All
 288 focal plants were transplanted in 16 agroecological infrastructures
 across the farm (10 wildflower strips and 6 grass/legume
 strips). Surveys on the field included:
 * monthly focal plant development monitoring (counting of
 composite flowers, fruits,...); * monthly botanical
 surveys : 6 quadrats of 2m x 50cm along a transect of 100m x 2m centered
 on the focal plot (n = 16 transects), identification of flowering plant
 species + counting of individuals and floral units per plant
 species; * bimonthly surveys of plant-pollinator
 interactions on the focal plants (plot-scale surveys, 15 minutes, n = 16
 plots) and in the local floral assemblage surrounding the focal plants (15
 minutes of slaw walk along the 100m x 2m transect, n = 16 transects):
 capture of insect floral visitors (Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera)
 feeding or entering in contact with the anthers/pistil. The insect
 captured were identified in the lab using reference keys.
 An automated meteorological station located on the experimental
 farm also provided daily records of temperature, precipitation, wind,
 etc. All focal plants were harvested at the end of the
 species' flowering period (<em>C</em>.
 <em>segetum</em> : mid-July; <em>C</em>.
 <em>jacea</em> : mid-September). The biomass of fruits, seeds
 and the whole plant was measured in the lab, and the floral heads (fruits
 with or without seeds) and seeds were counted. We
 summed the data of plant-pollinator interactions on the 16 focal plots and
 in the 16 local floral assemblages to model weighted bipartite interaction
 networks matching the flowering period of each focal plant individual.
 Network indices were computed using the R package "bipartite"
 (linkage density, H2', focal species d', ...) or manually
 (weighted total mutual dependence). All variables in
 the dataset were calculated from data matching exactly the flowering
 period of each focal plant individual.
description: Microsoft Excel