Facilitation and biodiversity jointly drive mutualistic networks

1. Facilitation by nurse plants increases understorey diversity and supports ecological communities. In turn, biodiversity shapes ecological networks and enhances ecosystem functioning. However, whether and how facilitation and increased biodiversity jointly influence community structure and ecosystem functioning remains unclear.

2. We performed a field experiment disentangling the relative contribution of nurse plants and increasing understorey plant diversity in driving pollination interactions. Both the presence of nurse shrubs as well as increased understorey plant diversity increased pollinator diversity and visitation rates. While nurse and understorey diversity effects on pollinator visitation rates did not interact, the effects of increasing understorey plant diversity on pollinator diversity were stronger in the absence than in the presence of shrubs, meaning that nurse shrubs attenuated the effects of high understorey diversity and buffered the effects of low understorey di...

1. 保育植物（nurse plants）的促进作用可提升林下植物多样性，并支撑生态群落的存续。反之，生物多样性可塑造生态网络并强化生态系统功能。然而，保育作用与提升的生物多样性二者是否会共同影响群落结构与生态系统功能，以及其具体作用机制，目前仍不明晰。
2. 本研究通过野外受控实验，厘清了保育植物与提升的林下植物多样性在调控传粉互作过程中的相对贡献。研究发现，保育灌丛的存在以及林下植物多样性的提升，均可增加传粉者多样性与访花频次。尽管保育灌丛与林下植物多样性对传粉者访花频次的影响不存在交互作用，但在无保育灌丛的场景下，提升林下植物多样性对传粉者多样性的促进作用更强，即保育灌丛会减弱高林下植物多样性的效应，并缓冲低林下植物多样性的……