Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Pollination advantage of rare plants unveiled

An analysis of plant–pollinator interactions reveals that the presence of abundant plant species favours the pollination of rare species. Such asymmetric facilitation might promote the coexistence of species in diverse plant communities.
  1. Marcelo A. Aizen

    1. Marcelo A. Aizen is at the Research Institute for Biodiversity and the Environment (INIBIOMA), National University of Comahue – CONICET, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina, and at the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, Germany.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Species diversification results from the balance between the formation of new species (speciation) and the loss of existing ones (extinction). The tremendous proliferation of different life forms on Earth can be attributed to both high rates of speciation and low rates of extinction. Flowering plants — a group called angiosperms — are one of the most diverse groups of non-mobile organism. There are approximately 352,000 plant species, nearly 90% of which depend, to various extents, on insects and other animals for pollination and seed production1. These animal pollinators have been key to the unstoppable diversification of the angiosperms, starting at least 120 million years ago, with pollinators promoting speciation by acting as potent selection agents for a plethora of flower traits2,3. Pollinators also aid species persistence by enabling pollen transfer between relatively distant individuals in sparse plant populations4. Writing in Nature, Wei et al.5 report that, for plant species that flower at the same time, pollinators mediate interactions that might facilitate species coexistence in diverse plant communities.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 597, 638-639 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02375-z

References

  1. Ollerton, J., Winfree, R. & Tarrant, S. Oikos 120, 321–326 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hernández-Hernández, T. & Wiens, J. J. Am. Nat. 195, 948–963 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. van der Niet, T. & Johnson, S. D. Trends Ecol. Evol. 27, 353–361 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Bawa, K. S. Trends Ecol. Evol. 10, 311–312 (1995).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Wei, N. et al. Nature 597, 688–692 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hegland, S. J., Grytnes, J.-A. & Totland, Ø. Ecol. Res. 24, 929–936 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Sargent, R. D. & Ackerly, D. D. Trends Ecol. Evol. 23, 123–130 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Ghazoul, J. J. Ecol. 94, 295–304 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tur, C., Sáez, A., Traveset, A. & Aizen, M. A. Ecol. Lett. 19, 576–586 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Bergamo, P. J., Streher, N. S., Traveset, A., Wolowski, M. & Sazima, M. Ecol. Lett. 23, 129–139 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Morales, C. L. & Traveset, A. Crit. Rev. Plant Sci. 27, 221–238 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Silvertown, J., Franco, M., Pisanty, I. & Mendoza, A. J. Ecol. 81, 465–476 (1993).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. IPBES. The Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2016).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Knight, T. M. et al. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 36, 467–497 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links