Phylogenetic restriction of plant invasion in drought-stressed environments: implications for insect-pollinated plant communities in water-limited ecosystems

Background: Plant-pollinator community diversity has been found to decrease under conditions of drought stress, however research into the temporal dimensions of this phenomenon remains limited. In this study, we investigated the effect of seasonal drought on the temporal niche dynamics of entomophilous flowering plants in a water-limited ecosystem. We hypothesized that closely related native and exotic plants would tend to share similar life history, and that peak flowering events would therefore coincide with phylogenetic clustering in plant communities based on expected phenological responses of plant functional types to limitations in soil moisture availability.

Location: Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada

Methods: Combining methods from pollinator research and phylogenetic community ecology, we tested the influence of environmental filtering over plant community phenology across gradients of landscape disturbance and soil moisture. Floral resource availability and commun...