Pollen limitation and context-dependent alleviating mechanisms in a co-flowering alpine grassland community

1. The consequences of community metrics (e.g., co-flowering diversity and floral density) and plant traits (e.g., pollinator dependency and trait similarity) on pollen limitation may depend on pollinator-mediated competitive or facilitative interactions among plants in co-flowering communities, which could vary with community contexts (i.e. different altitude communities) and under human disturbances (e.g., livestock grazing). However, the mechanisms to alleviate pollen limitation under the different contexts, considering pollinator-mediated interactions among neighbor plants are unclear.
2. We investigated pollen limitation under grazing versus ungrazing conditions in low versus high altitude alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau to uncover the underlying mechanisms mediating pollen limitation associated with livestock grazing.
3. Pollen limitation is prevalent in alpine grasslands, irrespective of community contexts. Grazing exclusion decreased pollen limitation in the two sites but ..., ,