title: Corridors restore animal-mediated pollination in fragmented tropical forest landscapes.
abstract: Tropical biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions have become heavily eroded through habitat loss. Animal-mediated pollination is required in more than 94% of higher tropical plant species and 75% of the world's leading food crops, but it remains unclear if corridors avert deforestation-driven pollination breakdown in fragmented tropical landscapes. Here, we used manipulative resource experiments and field observations to show that corridors functionally connect neotropical forest fragments for forest-associated hummingbirds and increase pollen transfer. Further, corridors boosted forest-associated pollinator availability in fragments by 14.3 times compared with unconnected equivalents, increasing overall pollination success. Plants in patches without corridors showed pollination rates equal to bagged control flowers, indicating pollination failure in isolated fragments. This indicates, for the first time, that corridors benefit tropical forest ecosystems beyond boosting local species richness, by functionally connecting mutualistic network partners. We conclude that small-scale adjustments to landscape configuration safeguard native pollinators and associated pollination services in tropical forest landscapes.
authors.affiliation: Agroecology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA oso@hotmail.ch.
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kormann
authors.affiliation: Agroecology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scherber
authors.affiliation: Agroecology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Teja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tscharntke
authors.affiliation: Chair of Statistics, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Nadja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.affiliation: Agroecology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Larbig
authors.affiliation: Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathon J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.affiliation: Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Adam S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Hadley
authors.affiliation: Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Betts
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D065928:Forests; D009043:Motor Activity; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: ecosystem functioning; functional connectivity; hummingbird; mutualistic interaction; pollen flow; pollinator limitation
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