Data and R code from: Managed honey bees aggravate pollination challenges for pollen-limited species in alpine meadows

1. Managed honey bees (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) are increasingly used worldwide to meet the growing demand for agricultural pollination service and honey production. Spillover of managed honey bees into natural habitats can strongly transform the wild plant-pollinator communities, resulted in mixed consequences for plant reproduction. To effectively cope with the impacts of managed honey bees and conserve biodiversity of the natural communities, we need a deeper understanding of the factors that determine the response type and magnitude of different plant species within communities.2. Here, we examined pollinator visitation, stigma pollen deposition, and seed set of eight common wild plant species (for two of which honey bee visitation has not been observed) under high (adjacent to hives) and low (far from hives) managed honey bee density in three alpine meadows on the eastern Tibetan Plateau.3. Close to managed hives, honey bee visited flowering plants more often at the expense of native pollinators, both at the community and species levels. The displacement of wild pollinators by honey bees generally increased heterospecific pollen deposition, resulting lower seed set in the meadow close to managed hives. The two species not visited by honey bees also suffered lower visitation rates or more heterospecific pollen load in the meadows near hives, indicating indirect effects of managed honey bees through pollination networks. Overall, plant species with higher degree of pollinator dependency and pollen limitation were more strongly affected by managed honey bees, experiencing a greater extent of decrease in wild pollinator visitation and increase in heterospecific pollen deposition with adjacency to managed hives.4. <i>Synthesis and applications</i>. Our results showed that managed honey bees reduced pollination and reproductive success of wild plants, especially of those suffering pollen limitation. Our findings help to identify priority plants and their pollinator for conservation in the alpine meadows of Tibetan Plateau, and we call for more attention to the indirect impacts of managed honey bees and more cautious management of introduced honey bees to protect this sensitive ecosystem.