Data from: Pollen on stigmas of herbarium specimens: a window into the impacts of a century of environmental disturbance on pollen transfer

Pollination is necessary for plant reproduction, but often highly
susceptible to disruption, e.g., by habitat fragmentation and climate
change. Here, we evaluated on a century time scale pollination
interactions for species in one of the historically most disturbed
habitats on earth-- tropical dry forests of Hawai’i. We employed a novel
method for acquiring a historical perspective on temporal change in
pollination by characterizing pollen on stigmas of herbarium specimens
from six remnant native species collected from 1909-2002. We determine
whether temporal shifts occurred in 1) pollination quantity and quality,
or 2) the composition of species interacting via pollen transfer. While
pollen quantity remained constant, these remnant species interact with
different species in modern times via pollen transfer than they did nearly
100 years ago. Species which are resilient to long-term environmental
change may also be the ones subject to changes in pollination
interactions.