
AbstractGiven the ongoing decline of both pollinators and plants, it is crucial to implement effective methods to describe complex pollination networks across time and space in a comprehensive and high-throughput way. Here we tested if metabarcoding may circumvent the limits of conventional methodologies in detecting and quantifying plant-pollinator interactions. Metabarcoding experiments on pollen DNA mixtures described a positive relationship between the amounts of DNA from focal species and the number oftrnLand ITS1 sequences yielded. The study of pollen loads of insects captured in plant communities revealed that as compared to the observation of visits, metabarcoding revealed 2.5 times more plant species involved in plant-pollinator interactions. We further observed a tight positive relationship between the pollen-carrying capacities of insect taxa and the number oftrnLand ITS1 sequences. The number of visits received per plant species also positively correlated to the number of their ITS1 andtrnLsequences in insect pollen loads. By revealing interactions hard to observe otherwise, metabarcoding significantly enlarges the spatiotemporal observation window of pollination interactions. By providing new qualitative and quantitative information, metabarcoding holds great promise for investigating diverse facets of interactions and will provide a new perception of pollination networks as a whole.
Insecta, DNA, Plant, 590, [SDV.GEN] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics, 630, Article, Species Specificity, environment/Symbiosis, Animals, DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic, Pollination, Plant Physiological Phenomena, [SDV.GEN]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics, [SDV.EE.IEO] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Symbiosis, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Plants, [SDE.BE] Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, [SDV.EE.IEO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, Pollen, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
Insecta, DNA, Plant, 590, [SDV.GEN] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics, 630, Article, Species Specificity, environment/Symbiosis, Animals, DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic, Pollination, Plant Physiological Phenomena, [SDV.GEN]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics, [SDV.EE.IEO] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Symbiosis, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Plants, [SDE.BE] Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, [SDV.EE.IEO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, Pollen, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 139 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% |
