Pollinator‐mediated reproductive interactions among co‐flowering plant species provide a canonical example of how biotic factors may contribute to species coexistence, yet we lack understanding of the exact mechanisms. Flowering‐dominant and unusually attractive “magnet species” with disproportionate contributions to pollination may play key roles in such reproductive interactions, but their relative roles within the same community have rarely been assessed. We experimentally removed either a flowering‐dominant or a highly attractive magnet species and compared effects on visitation frequency, pollinator richness, and seed set of co‐flowering plants. Removal of either the flowering‐dominant species or the magnet species reduced community‐level pollinator visitation. Removal of the magnet species had the most consistent effect, including reduced pollinator visitation and richness, and reduced seed set of most co‐flowering plants. These results suggest that the magnet species, which interacts with a wider range of pollinator species than does the dominant species, promotes the visitation and reproductive fitness of most other species. Removal of the flowering‐dominant species affected only certain species, perhaps because these plants had floral traits similar to the dominant species. Our results highlight the role of attractive magnet species within a community in structuring reproductive interactions and identify potential mechanisms involved in coexistence facilitated by reproductive interactions.

中文翻译：

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实验物种去除揭示了物种对传粉媒介介导的积极生殖相互作用的贡献


共开花植物物种之间传粉媒介介导的生殖相互作用提供了一个典型的例子，说明生物因素如何促进物种共存，但我们缺乏对确切机制的理解。对授粉做出不成比例贡献的以开花为主且异常有吸引力的“磁铁物种”可能在这种生殖相互作用中发挥关键作用，但它们在同一群落中的相对作用很少得到评估。我们实验去除了以开花为主或极具吸引力的磁铁物种，并比较了对访问频率、传粉媒介丰富度和共花植物种子集的影响。去除开花优势物种或磁铁物种减少了社区水平的传粉媒介访问。去除磁铁物种的效果最一致，包括减少传粉昆虫的访问和丰富度，以及减少大多数共花植物的结实率。这些结果表明，与优势物种相比，磁铁物种与更广泛的传粉媒介物种相互作用，促进了大多数其他物种的访问和繁殖适应性。去除开花优势物种仅影响某些物种，可能是因为这些植物具有与优势物种相似的花特性。我们的结果强调了群落内有吸引力的磁铁物种在构建生殖相互作用中的作用，并确定了生殖相互作用促进共存所涉及的潜在机制。