The role of plant polyploidy in the structure of plant-pollinator communities

Polyploidization is a major macromutation, bearing notable genomic and ecological consequences. While the impact of polyploidy on plant abiotic niches is well studied, our understanding of its consequences on biotic interactions, and particularly pollination, is lacking and hardly considers its role in shaping community structure. Here, we integrate hundreds of plant-pollinator networks, ploidy inferences, reproductive traits, and climatic attributes to ascertain whether a general pattern characterizes the link between polyploid frequency and community structure. We further examine whether environmental factors and plant traits known to be associated with polyploidy mediate this relationship. Our analysis reveals that an increased frequency of polyploid species is positively associated with network nestedness while being negatively associated modularity. Structural equation modeling reveals that these associations are partially mediated via the frequency of self-compatible plants and to a lesser extent by differences in flower shape. Despite these alterations in community structure, the heightened abundance of polyploids appears to have minimal impact on network connectance and resilience to extinction. Our findings imply that unlike abiotic interactions, the impact of polyploidy on biotic interactions is less predictable, and is affected synergistically by both phenotypic and environmental factors. Collectively, however, polyploidy still exerts an influence on community structure.