Plant-pollinator Interactions and the Assembly of Plant Communities

Most studies of plant community assembly have focused on how the abiotic aspects of a habitat (e.g. soil moisture or mineral composition) or direct interactions among plants in a community (e.g. competition for space or nutrients) influence which species establish and persist, but they have tended to neglect indirect interactions such as those mediated by pollinators. We address three types of plant-pollinator interactions--filtering, facilitation and competitive exclusion--and their predicted impacts on communities. The few available studies that address how pollinator-mediated interactions limit or promote plant species establishment and persistence provide support for many of these predictions. An integrated framework for understanding plant community assembly needs to incorporate abiotic and biotic interactions, including plant-pollinator and other plant-animal interactions.