Global patterns in plant–pollinator specialization
Sailee P. Sakhalkar · Nico Blüthgen · Laura A. Burkle · Paul CaraDonna · Bo Dalsgaard · Carsten F. Dormann · Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury · Tiffany M. Knight · Jeff Ollerton · Julian Resasco · Matthias Schleuning · Diego P. Vázquez · Rita N. Afagwu · Ruben Alarcón · Felipe W. Amorim · Marsal D. Amorim · Dominik Anýž · Blanca Arroyo-Correa · Maddi Artamendi · Zeynep Atalay · Justin A. Bain · Katherine C. R. Baldock · Gavin Ballantyne · Caio S. Ballarin · Behnaz Balmaki · Michael Bartoš · Vasuki Belavadi · Paolo Biella · Anne D. Bjorkman · João Paulo Raimundo Borges · Jordi Bosch · Camila Bosenbecker · Stephane Boyer · Karin T. Burghardt · Edson Cardona · Quebin Bosbely Casiá-Ajché · Anthony M. T. Castagna · Ferhat Celep · Melanie N. Chisté · Yann Clough · James M. Cook · Liam P. Crowther · Fabiana D. Reis · Luis P. da Silva · Wesley Dáttilo · Valeska De Cárdenas · Joan Díaz-Calafat · Lynn V. Dicks · Rye Dickson · Marion L. Donald · Lee A. Dyer · Fairo F. Dzekashu · Natalia Escobedo Kenefic · Tom M. Fayle · Laura L. Figueroa · Jan Filip · Raúl García-Camacho · Amy-Marie Gilpin · Luis Giménez-Benavides · Ingrid N. Gomes · Heather Grab · Ingo Grass · Travis J. Guy · Veronica Hederström · Carlos Hernández-Castellano · Sandra Hervías-Parejo · Andrea Holzschuh · Sebastian Hopfenmüller · José M. Iriondo · Štěpán Janeček · Jana Jersáková · Shalene Jha · Aphrodite Kantsa · Tamar Keasar · Liam Kendall · Yannick Klomberg · Ishmeal N. Kobe · Theresia Krausl · Patricia Landaverde · Carlos Lara-Romero · H. Michael G. Lattorff · Felipe Librán-Embid · Tial C. Ling · Sissi Lozada-Gobilard · Francis Ewome Luma · Pedro Luna · Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar · Ana Carolina Pereira Machado · Isabel C. Machado · Ainhoa Magrach · Fabienne Maihoff · Gabriel Marcacci · Carlos Martínez-Núñez · Pietro K. Maruyama · Natsuki Matsubara · Maggie Mayberry · Marco A. R. Mello · Ugo Mendes Diniz · Marcos Méndez · Jan E. J. Mertens · Rubén Milla · Javier Morente-López · Tarcila L. Nadia · Georgios Nakas · Anders Nielsen · Alon Ornai · Sergio Osorio-Canadas · Wilhelm H. A. Osterman · Todd M. Palmer · Theodora Petanidou · Christian W. W. Pirk · Kit S. Prendergast · Richard Primack · Luis M. Primo · Marina Querejeta · Zelma Quirino · André Rodrigo Rech · Sara Reverté · Pedro J. Rey · Léo C. Rocha-Filho · Anselm Rodrigo Domínguez · Masoud A. Rostami · Avery L. Russell · Silvia Santamaría · Francisco A. R. Santos · Takehiro Sasaki · Manu E. Saunders · Victor H. D. Silva · Michael P. Simanonok · Antigoni Sounapoglou · Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter · Sam Tarrant · Rubén Torices · Anna Traveset · Teja Tscharntke · Guillermo Uceda-Gómez · Katherine R. Urban-Mead · Casper J. van der Kooi · Catrin Westphal · Abdullahi Yusuf · Robert Tropek
期刊Nature Ecology & Evolution / Nat Ecol Evol
类型Article
发表2026-09-30 (online)
卷期页10(10): 1886-1899
收录2026-10-10
被浏览…
关键词plant-pollinator interactionsspecializationpollination networkslatitudinal gradienttemperatureprecipitationhemispheric lateralizationbird pollinatorsinsect pollinatorsclimate change
标签—
Pollination is a key ecological process sustaining biodiversity and food security, yet global patterns of plant-pollinator specialization remain unresolved. Using a global dataset of quantitative plant-pollinator networks (>3,400 networks, >110,000 interactions), we show that specialization is latitudinally structured, but not as a single directional pattern. We find no consistent monotonic increase or decrease in specialization towards the Equator. Instead, network-level and pollinator specialization peak at low northern latitudes near the tropical-subtropical boundary, whereas plant specialization is hemispherically asymmetric. Climate is most often the best-supported predictor of specialization compared with latitude, biodiversity and environmental productivity. Network-level specialization declines with increasing mean annual temperature, with strong group-specific differences. Precipitation exerts nonlinear effects: plant specialization peaks at intermediate precipitation but is lower at the wettest sites, whereas pollinator specialization is lower at intermediate precipitation, although often in interaction with temperature. Pollinator groups diverge strongly, especially in contrasting precipitation-related patterns between birds and insects. These findings show that global plant-pollinator specialization is structured by latitude and climate in complex and taxon-specific ways, with implications for uneven responses of pollination networks to future climatic change.

@article{sakhalkar2026,
author = {Sailee P. Sakhalkar and Nico Blüthgen and Laura A. Burkle and Paul CaraDonna and Bo Dalsgaard and Carsten F. Dormann and Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury and Tiffany M. Knight and Jeff Ollerton and Julian Resasco and Matthias Schleuning and Diego P. Vázquez and Rita N. Afagwu and Ruben Alarcón and Felipe W. Amorim and Marsal D. Amorim and Dominik Anýž and Blanca Arroyo-Correa and Maddi Artamendi and Zeynep Atalay and Justin A. Bain and Katherine C. R. Baldock and Gavin Ballantyne and Caio S. Ballarin and Behnaz Balmaki and Michael Bartoš and Vasuki Belavadi and Paolo Biella and Anne D. Bjorkman and João Paulo Raimundo Borges and Jordi Bosch and Camila Bosenbecker and Stephane Boyer and Karin T. Burghardt and Edson Cardona and Quebin Bosbely Casiá-Ajché and Anthony M. T. Castagna and Ferhat Celep and Melanie N. Chisté and Yann Clough and James M. Cook and Liam P. Crowther and Fabiana D. Reis and Luis P. da Silva and Wesley Dáttilo and Valeska De Cárdenas and Joan Díaz-Calafat and Lynn V. Dicks and Rye Dickson and Marion L. Donald and Lee A. Dyer and Fairo F. Dzekashu and Natalia Escobedo Kenefic and Tom M. Fayle and Laura L. Figueroa and Jan Filip and Raúl García-Camacho and Amy-Marie Gilpin and Luis Giménez-Benavides and Ingrid N. Gomes and Heather Grab and Ingo Grass and Travis J. Guy and Veronica Hederström and Carlos Hernández-Castellano and Sandra Hervías-Parejo and Andrea Holzschuh and Sebastian Hopfenmüller and José M. Iriondo and Štěpán Janeček and Jana Jersáková and Shalene Jha and Aphrodite Kantsa and Tamar Keasar and Liam Kendall and Yannick Klomberg and Ishmeal N. Kobe and Theresia Krausl and Patricia Landaverde and Carlos Lara-Romero and H. Michael G. Lattorff and Felipe Librán-Embid and Tial C. Ling and Sissi Lozada-Gobilard and Francis Ewome Luma and Pedro Luna and Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar and Ana Carolina Pereira Machado and Isabel C. Machado and Ainhoa Magrach and Fabienne Maihoff and Gabriel Marcacci and Carlos Martínez-Núñez and Pietro K. Maruyama and Natsuki Matsubara and Maggie Mayberry and Marco A. R. Mello and Ugo Mendes Diniz and Marcos Méndez and Jan E. J. Mertens and Rubén Milla and Javier Morente-López and Tarcila L. Nadia and Georgios Nakas and Anders Nielsen and Alon Ornai and Sergio Osorio-Canadas and Wilhelm H. A. Osterman and Todd M. Palmer and Theodora Petanidou and Christian W. W. Pirk and Kit S. Prendergast and Richard Primack and Luis M. Primo and Marina Querejeta and Zelma Quirino and André Rodrigo Rech and Sara Reverté and Pedro J. Rey and Léo C. Rocha-Filho and Anselm Rodrigo Domínguez and Masoud A. Rostami and Avery L. Russell and Silvia Santamaría and Francisco A. R. Santos and Takehiro Sasaki and Manu E. Saunders and Victor H. D. Silva and Michael P. Simanonok and Antigoni Sounapoglou and Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter and Sam Tarrant and Rubén Torices and Anna Traveset and Teja Tscharntke and Guillermo Uceda-Gómez and Katherine R. Urban-Mead and Casper J. van der Kooi and Catrin Westphal and Abdullahi Yusuf and Robert Tropek},
title = {Global patterns in plant–pollinator specialization},
journal = {Nature Ecology \& Evolution},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {10},
pages = {1886-1899},
doi = {10.1038/s41559-026-03170-7},
publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
}· END ·