Network resilience of plant-bee interactions in the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot

Interaction network resilience can be defined as the ability of interacting organisms to maintain their functions, processes or populations after experiencing a disturbance. Studies on mutualistic interactions between plants and pollinators along environmental gradients are essential to understand the provision of ecosystem services and the mechanisms challenging their network resilience. However, it remains unknown to what level ecological changes along climatic gradients constrain the network resilience of mutualistic organisms, especially along elevation gradients. We surveyed bee species and recorded their interactions with plants throughout the four major seasons (i.e. long and short rainy, and long and short dry) on 50 study sites positioned along an elevation gradient (525 m to 2,530 m asl) in the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspots in Kenya, East Africa. We calculated bee and plant network resilience using the network resilience parameter (beta(eff)) and assessed changes in bee and plant network resilience along the elevation gradient using generalised additive models (gams). We quantified the effects of climate, bee and plant diversity, bee functional traits, network structure, and landscape configuration on bee and plant network resilience using a set of multi-model inference frameworks followed by structural equation models (SEM). We found that bee and plant species exhibited higher levels of network resilience at higher elevations. While bee network resilience increased linearly across the elevation gradient, plant network resilience increased exponentially from similar to 1500 m and higher. Bee and plant network resilience increased in areas with reduced mean annual temperature (MAT) and decreased in areas with lower mean annual precipitation (MAP). Our SEM model showed that increasing temperatures indirectly influenced plant network resilience via network modularity and community assemblage of bees. We also found that MAP had a direct positive effect on plant diversity and network resilience, while the fragmentation of habitats reduced richness of plant communities and enhanced network modularity. In conclusion, we revealed that mutualistic networks showed higher network resilience at higher elevations. We also unveiled that climate and habitat fragmentation directly or indirectly influences the network resilience of plants and bees via the modulation of community assemblages and interaction networks. These influences are lower at higher elevations such that these systems seem better able to buffer against extinction cascades. We thus suggest that, management efforts should be geared at consolidating natural habitats. In contrast, restoration efforts should aim at mitigating climate change effects and harnessing the ability of mutualists to reconnect broken links to improve the network resilience and functioning of EastAfrican montane ecosystems.