Community Ecology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 15: Issue 2
Information retrieved from specimens at Natural History Collections can improve the quality of field-based ecological networks
Authors:
R. González-Vaquero CONICET Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ Av. Ángel Gallardo 470 C1405DJR Buenos Aires Argentina

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A.-I. Gravel York University 4700 Keele St. M3J 1P3 Toronto Ontario Canada

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M. Devoto Universidad de Buenos Aires Cátedra de Botánica, Facultad de Agronomía Av. San Martín 4453 C1417DSE Buenos Aires Argentina

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Pages:
187–193
Online Publication Date:
17 Nov 2014
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2014
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/comec.15.2014.2.7
Keywords:
Museum collections; Mutualistic networks; Plant-pollinator; Pollination
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Numerous studies analyze the interactions between plants and their pollinators in ecological communities using a network approach. However, field studies rarely record all the interactions occurring in the field. In this sense Natural History Collections (NHCs) can provide information on interactions that may have been missed by field sampling. In this study we compare a network based on field sampling with a network based on data retrieved from specimens at NHCs, and we assess the degree to which these two sources of data are complementary. For this we used data available from a bee biodiversity study conducted in Southern Argentina for the South American bee genus Corynura (Halictidae: Augochlorini). Data on the floral associations of the specimens at NHCs were retrieved from the specimens’ labels, as the name of the plant species on which a given bee was captured is often recorded for many specimens at NHCs. Although field sampling recorded an unusually high number of insect-plant interactions, it misses some unique interactions present in the NHCs networks. Some structural properties of these networks are briefly analyzed, and usefulness and limitations of using NHCs data are discussed. We conclude that the information about insect-plant interactions extracted from NHCs could complement field-based data, especially in poorly sampled communities.

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Cover Community Ecology
Community Ecology An Interdisciplinary Journal Reporting Progress in Community and Population Studies
Print ISSN:
1585-8553
Online ISSN:
1588-2756

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Community Ecology
Language English
Size A4
Year of
Foundation		 2000
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 3
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1585-8553 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2756 (Online)

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