title: Bird-flower visitation networks in the Galápagos unveil a widespread interaction release.
abstract: Owing to food scarcity and to the high densities that vertebrates often reach on islands, typical insect- and seed-eaters widen their feeding niche and interact with a greater fraction of species than their mainland counterparts. This phenomenon, coined here 'interaction release', has been previously reported for single species but never for an entire community. During 4 years, we gathered data on bird-flower visitation on 12 Galápagos islands. We show that all sampled land birds exploit floral resources and act as potential pollinators across the entire archipelago, in all major habitats and all year round. Although species and link composition varies among islands, strong interaction release takes place on all islands, making their bird-flower network highly generalized. Interaction release is crucial to the survival of native birds but simultaneously threatens the unique biodiversity of this archipelago, as the birds also visit invading plants, likely facilitating their integration into pristine native communities.
authors.affiliation: Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Department of Biodiversity and Conservation, C/ Miquel Marqués 21, Esporles, Mallorca 07190, Balearic Islands, Spain.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Traveset
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience, Ny Munkegade 114, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Olesen
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (CSIC-IPNA), Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, 38206 Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nogales
authors.affiliation: Real Jardín Botánico (CSIC-RJB), Department of Biodiversity and Conservation, Plaza de Murillo, 2, 28014 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.affiliation: Charles Darwin Foundation, Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, 200350 Quito, Ecuador.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jaramillo
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Department of Plant Biology, Apdo. 59, E-29080 Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Antolín
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Málaga, Department of Plant Biology, Apdo. 59, E-29080 Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: María Mar
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Trigo
authors.affiliation: 1] Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Department of Biodiversity and Conservation, C/ Miquel Marqués 21, Esporles, Mallorca 07190, Balearic Islands, Spain [2] Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, Coimbra 3000-456, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ruben
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heleno
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004484:Ecuador; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D020387:Food Chain; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology; D058865:Introduced Species / Q000639:trends; D063148:Plant Dispersal / Q000502:physiology*; D010944:Plants; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology*