Generalised bumblebee-flower interactions demonstrate weak floral niche partitioning despite a high bee diversity

Niche partitioning is one of the key mechanisms allowing species co-existence and is especially relevant in species-rich communities. For pollinators, morphology is a major axis in which species differentiate their foraging niche, as it influences the match with flower morphology. Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are important pollinators globally, showing their highest diversity of co-occurring species in the Hengduan Mountains region of southwestern China. This community context makes the region an ideal model system to test the importance of niche partitioning for plant-pollinator interactions. In high-elevation flower-rich meadows, over four years, we sampled pollinator-plant interaction networks containing 12 sympatric bumblebee species, varying more than fourfold in tongue length from 4.7 to 21.7 mm. We then assessed the degree of niche partitioning occurring between these bumblebees. We analysed bumblebees’ foraging niche widths and overlap and found that species with longer tongues fora..., Our dataset was built by pooling together all bumblebees visiting flower information available for the Yulong Snow Mountain from 2016 to 2019., , # Generalised bumblebee-flower interactions demonstrate weak floral niche partitioning despite a high bee diversity

Bumblebee-plant_matrix_(Yearly_and_qualitative).csv: This file contains the data of the yearly and qualitative for the bumblebee-plant network.

* Year (e.g. Y1, Y2) indicates sampling period,

- Bumblebee species observed,

* The subsequent column is a plant species, with 0/1 or counts indicating presence/absence or number of interactions.

Bumblebee-plant_matrix_(aggregated).csv: This file contains the data of the aggregated bumblebee-plant network.

* Rows = plant species

- Columns = bumblebee species (e.g., Bombus friseanus, Bombus festivus), values are counts.

Site_information.xlsx: This file contains the data of the site information.

* site IDs or names,
* GPS coordinates (latitude/longitude),
* elevation
* habitat type

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