Data from: Biodiversity ensures plant-pollinator phenological synchrony against climate change

Climate change has the potential to alter the phenological synchrony
between interacting mutualists, such as plants and their pollinators.
However, high levels of biodiversity might buffer the negative effects of
species-specific phenological shifts and maintain synchrony at the
community level, as predicted by the biodiversity insurance hypothesis.
Here, we explore how biodiversity might enhance and stabilise phenological
synchrony between a valuable crop, apple and its native pollinators. We
combine 46 years of data on apple flowering phenology with historical
records of bee pollinators over the same period. When the key apple
pollinators are considered altogether, we found extensive synchrony
between bee activity and apple peak bloom due to complementarity among bee
species’ activity periods, and also a stable trend over time due to
differential responses to warming climate among bee species. A simulation
model confirms that high biodiversity levels can ensure plant–pollinator
phenological synchrony and thus pollination function.