Specialization and phenological synchrony of plant–pollinator interactions along an altitudinal gradient

1. One of the most noticeable effects of anthropogenic climate change is the shift in timing of seasonal events towards earlier occurrence. The high degree of variation in species' phenological shifts has raised concerns about the temporal decoupling of interspecific interactions, but the extent and implications of this effect are largely unknown. In the case of plant–pollinator systems, more specialized species are predicted to be particularly threatened by phenological decoupling, since they are assumed to be less flexible in the choice of interaction partners, but until now this hypothesis has not been tested. 2. In this paper, we studied phenology and interactions of plant and pollinator communities along an altitudinal gradient in the Alps as a model for the possible effects of climate change in time. 3. Our results show that even relatively specialized pollinators were much more flexible in their use of plant species as floral resources than their local flower visitation suggested...1. 人为气候变化最显著的影响之一，便是各类季节性事件的发生时序向提前方向偏移。不同物种的物候偏移存在高度差异，这引发了学界对种间相互作用时间脱耦的担忧，但该效应的波及范围与潜在影响目前仍在很大程度上未被探明。就植物-传粉者系统（plant–pollinator systems）而言，特化程度更高的物种被认为更容易受到物候脱耦的威胁，因为这类物种在选择互作伙伴时的灵活性相对更低，但截至目前该假说尚未得到实证检验。2. 本研究以阿尔卑斯山脉的海拔梯度作为气候变化时间效应的研究模型，对沿线分布的植物群落与传粉者群落的物候特征及其相互作用展开了系统性调查。3. 研究结果显示，即便相对特化的传粉者，其在选取作为蜜粉源的植物种类时所展现出的灵活性，也远高于其当地访花行为所体现的水平……