Overabundant populations of large wild herbivores disrupt plant-pollinator networks in a Mediterranean ecosystem

Large herbivores are keystone species, so changes in their population abundance may cause cascading effects on ecosystems. Our study explores the impacts of increasing red deer (Cervus elaphus) densities on plant-pollinator networks. We conducted a manipulative experiment with increasing densities, consisting of comparable hectare-scale enclosures in a Mediterranean ecosystem. We simulated two current scenarios of deer overabundance: high densities (>30 individuals/km2) and hyper densities (>90 individuals/km2). We compared these scenarios to an adjacent control exclosure (no deer). In each scenario we analysed herbivory in three focal species of shrub, as well as flower and pollinator abundance, richness, diversity, evenness, and composition. We also analysed plant-pollinator interaction dissimilarity among networks, plant visitation rate, as well as plant and pollinator generality. For each network, we analysed network size, interaction richness, diversity, and evenness, as well..., , , # Overabundant populations of large wild herbivores disrupt plant-pollinator networks in a Mediterranean ecosystem Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw67](10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw67) ## Description of the data and file structure We conducted a manipulative experiment with increasing densities, consisting of comparable hectare-scale enclosures in a Mediterranean ecosystem. We simulated two current scenarios of deer overabundance: high densities (>30 individuals/km2) and hyper densities (>90 individuals/km2). We compared these scenarios to an adjacent control exclosure (no deer). In each scenario we analysed herbivory in three focal species of shrub, as well as flower and pollinator abundance, richness, diversity, evenness, and composition. We also analysed plant-pollinator interaction dissimilarity among networks, plant visitation rate, as well as plant and pollinator generality. For each network, we analysed network size, interaction richness, diversity, and evenness, as well as network...,