The seasonal dynamics of a High Arctic plant–visitor network: temporal observations and responses to delayed snow melt

Abstract

Plant–visitor food webs provide important insights into species interactions, and more information about their seasonal dynamics is vital to understanding the resilience of species to external pressures. Studies of Arctic networks can also improve our understanding of species responses to the pressures of climate change. This study provides the first description of a plant – insect visitor network in Svalbard, a High Arctic archipelago already experiencing the consequences of climate change. A subset of the network was collected from experimental plots where the snow melt date was delayed with snow fences. The deep snow plots delayed flowering and we expected this to disrupt plant–visitor interactions compared with ambient snow conditions. However, the composition of flowers and insect visitors were similar between regimes, and the network tracked patterns of overall flowering phenology. Nevertheless, the deep snow significantly reduced the average overlap between flower availability and insect activity, reducing the probability of an interaction. We suggest that at a landscape scale, Arctic pollinators will benefit from patchy changes to snow melt that maintain heterogeneity in the timing of flowering but changes that increase homogeneity in snowmelt across the landscape may negatively impact some species.