Database of plant-flower visitor interactions from Ireland

Beneficial insects provide valuable services upon which we rely, including pollination. Pollinator conservation is a global priority, and a significant concern in Ireland, where over half of extant bee species have declined significantly in recent decades. As flower-visiting insects rely on flowering plants, one way to conserve and promote pollinator populations is to protect high-quality habitat. We analysed the structure of insect-flower interactions from multiple habitat categories in a large database of interactions from Ireland. Our primary goals were to compare spatial and temporal variation in Irish network structures, compare Irish networks to published networks from other countries, and provide evidence-based recommendations for pollinator conservation in Ireland by identifying well-visited plant species that may promote high pollinator diversity, abundance, and functional complementarity. Habitat types within Ireland differed substantially: semi-natural grasslands had the high...