Mutualistic interactions between plants and pollinators play an essential role in the organization and persistence of biodiversity. The structure of interaction networks mediates the resilience of local communities and ecosystem functioning to environmental changes. Hence, network structure conservation may be more critical for maintaining biodiversity and ecological services than the preservation of isolated species in changing landscapes. Here, we intensively surveyed seven 36 km2 landscapes to empirically investigate the effects of forest loss and landscape configuration on the structure of plant-pollinator networks in understory vegetation of Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Our results indicate that forest loss and isolation affect the structure of the plant-pollinator networks, which were smaller in deforested landscapes, and less specialized as patch isolation increased. Lower nestedness and degree of specialization (H'2) indicated that the remaining plant and bee species tend to be generalists, and many of the expected specialized interactions in the network were already lost. Because generalist species generate a cohesive interaction core in these networks, these simplified networks might be resistant to loss of peripheral species, but may be susceptible to the extinction of the most generalist species. We suggest that such a network pattern is an outcome of landscapes with a few remaining isolated patches of natural habitat. Our results add a new perspective to studies of plant-pollinator networks in fragmented landscapes, showing that those interaction networks might also be used to indicate how changes in natural habitat affect biodiversity and biotic interactions.

中文翻译：

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森林和连通性的丧失简化了热带授粉网络。

植物和授粉媒介之间的相互影响在生物多样性的组织和持久性中起着至关重要的作用。互动网络的结构介导了当地社区和生态系统对环境变化的适应力。因此，保护​​网络结构对于维持生物多样性和生态服务可能比在不断变化的景观中保护孤立物种更为关键。在这里，我们深入调查了七个36平方公里的景观，以实证研究森林流失和景观配置对巴西大西洋森林地下植被中植物授粉媒介网络结构的影响。我们的结果表明，森林的消失和隔离会影响植物-传粉媒介网络的结构，而在受砍伐的森林中，传粉网络较小，随着补丁隔离度的提高，专业化程度也有所降低。较低的嵌套度和专业化程度（H'2）表示剩余的植物和蜜蜂物种倾向于多面手，并且网络中许多预期的专业化交互作用已经丢失。由于通才物种在这些网络中生成凝聚力相互作用的核心，因此这些简化的网络可能会阻止外围物种的流失，但可能易受大多数通才物种灭绝的影响。我们建议，这种网络模式是景观的结果，其中有一些剩余的孤立的自然栖息地斑块。我们的研究结果为零散景观中植物传粉媒介网络的研究提供了新的视角，