Effects of environmental conditions on structure and composition of plant-pollinator interaction networks Faculty of Science, Charles University

Recently, global declines of insect pollinators have been reported. However, it is still not much known how do the specific environmental conditions (such as climate and habitat quality) shape the composition of communities of pollinators and consequently how do they affect the stability of plant-pollinator interaction networks. The PhD project will consist of three major parts. First part of the PhD project will take place in Ecuadorian Andes, in an environment with low seasonal variability in climate conditions and unpredictable weather conditions. In this part of the project, an effect of temperature and precipitation at various temporal scales will be examined. Second part of the project will be conducted in central Europe (Czech Republic and surrounding countries). In Europe, plant-pollinator interactions will be sampled across sites with similar plant communities, but different quality of surrounding habitats. In the final part of the project, extensive meta-analysis will be performed, based on previously published pollinator networks as well as our own data from Ecuador and Europe. In all three parts of the project, we will focus on effects of environmental conditions on pollinator species richness, composition of pollinator communities, and structural characteristics of plant-pollinator networks, in particular the robustness of the network.

Five relevant publications of the research group:

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