title: Specialization of mutualistic interaction networks decreases toward tropical latitudes.
abstract: Species-rich tropical communities are expected to be more specialized than their temperate counterparts. Several studies have reported increasing biotic specialization toward the tropics, whereas others have not found latitudinal trends once accounting for sampling bias or differences in plant diversity. Thus, the direction of the latitudinal specialization gradient remains contentious. With an unprecedented global data set, we investigated how biotic specialization between plants and animal pollinators or seed dispersers is associated with latitude, past and contemporary climate, and plant diversity. We show that in contrast to expectation, biotic specialization of mutualistic networks is significantly lower at tropical than at temperate latitudes. Specialization was more closely related to contemporary climate than to past climate stability, suggesting that current conditions have a stronger effect on biotic specialization than historical community stability. Biotic specialization decreased with increasing local and regional plant diversity. This suggests that high specialization of mutualistic interactions is a response of pollinators and seed dispersers to low plant diversity. This could explain why the latitudinal specialization gradient is reversed relative to the latitudinal diversity gradient. Low mutualistic network specialization in the tropics suggests higher tolerance against extinctions in tropical than in temperate communities.
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) and Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. matthias.schleuning@senckenberg.de
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schleuning
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fründ
authors.forename: Alexandra-Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abrahamczyk
authors.forename: Ruben
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alarcón
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albrecht
authors.forename: Georg K S
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bazarian
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Böhning-Gaese
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bommarco
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dalsgaard
authors.forename: D Matthias
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Dehling
authors.forename: Ariella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gotlieb
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hickler
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Holzschuh
authors.forename: Christopher N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Kaiser-Bunbury
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kreft
authors.forename: Rebecca J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Brody
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sandel
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: Jens-Christian
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Svenning
authors.forename: Teja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tscharntke
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watts
authors.forename: Christiane N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Weiner
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.forename: Neal M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Camilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Winqvist
authors.forename: Carsten F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Dormann
authors.forename: Nico
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Blüthgen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics; D054817:Pollination; D058614:Seed Dispersal; D013559:Symbiosis; D014329:Tropical Climate