Data from: Diverse pollinator communities enhance plant reproductive success

Understanding the functional consequences of biodiversity loss is a major
goal of ecology. Animal-mediated pollination is an essential ecosystem
function and service provided to mankind. However, little is known how
pollinator diversity could affect pollination services. Using a
substitutive design, we experimentally manipulated functional group (FG)
and species richness of pollinator communities to investigate their
consequences on the reproductive success of an obligate out-crossing model
plant species, Raphanus sativus. Both fruit and seed set increased with
pollinator FG richness. Furthermore, seed set increased with species
richness in pollinator communities composed of a single FG. However, in
multiple-FG communities, highest species richness resulted in slightly
reduced pollination services compared with intermediate species richness.
Our analysis indicates that the presence of social bees, which showed
roughly four times higher visitation rates than solitary bees or
hoverflies, was an important factor contributing to the positive
pollinator diversity–pollination service relationship, in particular, for
fruit set. Visitation rate at different daytimes, and less so among flower
heights, varied among social bees, solitary bees and hoverflies,
indicating a niche complementarity among these pollinator groups. Our
study demonstrates enhanced pollination services of diverse pollinator
communities at the plant population level and suggests that both the niche
complementarity and the presence of specific taxa in a pollinator
community drive this positive relationship.