Data from: Landscape homogenization strengthens the fitness benefits of plant species' centrality in pollination networks

To comprehend how pollination services can be maintained in increasingly
anthropized landscapes is essential to understand how plant-pollinator
interactions vary along disturbance gradients influencing community
function. Recent studies found positive relationships between plant
fitness and centrality in interaction networks (i.e., high proximity to
other plants in networks via shared pollinators). However, this
relationship might vary depending on communities’ landscape context and
species’ functional traits. We hypothesized that the fitness benefits of
centrality might be higher in homogeneous than heterogeneous landscapes,
as the former might favor generalist species and behaviors. We also
expected stronger positive relationships between centrality and fitness in
pollinator-dependent actinomorphic species compared to autogamous species
that do not depend on pollinators, or zygomorphic species that are
pollinated by a small set of specialized species. Here, we combined field
samplings and experiments to study how centrality related to fitness
(seeds produced) in 11 plant species from 20 communities along a gradient
of landscape heterogeneity. For that, we assessed changes in the
centrality-fitness relationship associated with landscape variations and
species’ functional groups: autogamous species,
entomophilous-actinomorphic species, and entomophilous-zygomorphic
species. We found that centrality positively influenced plant fitness in
more homogeneous landscapes, whereas it had a null effect on fitness in
more heterogeneous landscapes. Furthermore, centrality was irrelevant for
the fitness of mostly autogamous plant species but influenced the fitness
of mostly entomophilous species, increasing the reproductive output in
actinomorphic species while decreasing it in zygomorphic ones. For the
first time, we show that the relationship between interaction structure
and function varies with the landscape context and the group of species
evaluated. Our study also highlights the importance of conserving
heterogeneous landscapes to maintain effective specialized interactions,
as the higher fitness benefits of centrality in homogenous landscapes
might drive feedback cycles of increased generalization over time in
communities within these landscapes.