Pietro Kiyoshi Maruyama

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• Ph.D,
• Professor (Assistant) at Federal University of Minas Gerais

Plants establish pollination interactions with different groups of animals, including nocturnal ones that establish interactions with economically valuable and culturally important crops, as well as wild plants of conservation concern. Despite the considerable number of studies addressing the structure and dynamic of pollination networks, nocturnal...

Urbanization affects the occurrence, abundance and distribution of pollinators worldwide. Although urban green spaces support many pollinators, global estimates of urban pollinator diversity are still lacking. Here, we present a global overview of urban pollinators, characterizing the most frequently recorded species and functional groups, as well...

Urbanization has reshaped the distribution of biodiversity on Earth, but we are only beginning to understand its effects on ecological communities. While urbanization may have homogenization effects strong enough to blur the large-scale patterns in interaction networks, urban community patterns may still be associated with climate gradients reflect...

Understanding the relative importance of multiple processes on structuring species interactions within communities is one of the major challenges in ecology. Here, we evaluated the relative importance of species abundance and forbidden links in structuring a hummingbird-plant interaction network from the Atlantic rainforest in Brazil. Our results s...

Functional traits determine interactions between plants and pollinators, and to increase pollination efficiency, many plants have evolved traits to attract specific pollinator groups. However, biogeographical setting may influence trait evolution and biotic interactions. For instance, plants pollinated by hummingbirds often have ornithophilous trai...

Urbanization poses significant threats to pollinators, but they may respond differently to habitat modification according to their nesting and foraging requirements. Despite the diversity of pollinator groups and species found in urban areas, research often focus on bees, neglecting other groups. Whether bee response to urbanization suffice in repr...

The diversity of plant-pollinator relationships is crucial in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the extensive literature on pollination, research is still skewed towards temperate regions, specific plant lineages and pollinator groups, leading to biogeographic and taxonomic biases. We systematically reviewed the diversity of plant-pollinator interact...

O livro "Jardim para Polinizadores" surgiu com o objetivo de integrar o conhecimento acadêmico em Conservação e Biologia da Polinização ao engajamento da comunidade, visando tornar as áreas verdes urbanas mais amigáveis para os polinizadores. Desenvolvido como parte de uma pesquisa, o livro resultou de um trabalho colaborativo que envolveu a contri...

Pollination is a key ecological interaction providing fundamental ecosystem services, as most food items we consume depend on biotic pollination. However, a pollination crisis has become evident in the last decades because of multiple anthropogenic biodiversity loss drivers. Agricultural expansion, agrochemicals, invasive species, and climate chang...

Hawkmoths and flowers exhibit striking examples of morphological specialisation, yet how these interactions are structured by different processes within communities still need to be better understood. In this study, we investigated the interactions between hawkmoths and flowers in the megadiverse, open‐vegetation landscape of the Brazilian Campos R...

Biotic pollination is a key ecosystem function, as 85 % of all Angiosperms depend on interactions with animals for reproduction. Anthropogenic impacts have caused a decrease in biodiversity, affecting species interactions and their conservation. Initiatives to evaluate species' conservation value usually do not consider the species interactions org...

The impact of land use changes on ecosystem services (ES) or Nature's Contributions to People (NCP) is relatively well-known, but the influence of socioeconomic changes on ES remains less clear, especially at larger spatial scales. Multiple socioeconomic factors influence the demand for a service (i.e. higher economic income and human development c...

The expansion of agricultural landscapes is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss around the world; the environmental gradients resulting from these landscape changes, however, allow an assessment of how biodiversity responds to environmental change. Functional diversity and mutualistic interactions between plants and animals represent an im...

Pollination biology is anchored in natural history studies, defined broadly as the practice of observing and describing an organism's behaviour, interactions, and association with the environment in detail. Remarkable or unexpected observations of natural phenomena involving organisms are then interpreted in the light of prior knowledge. Valuing a...

Research Highlight: Leimberger, K.G., Hadley, A.S., & Betts, M.G. (2023). Plant–hummingbird pollination networks exhibit minimal rewiring after experimental removal of a locally abundant plant species. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365‐2656.13935. In this paper, Leimberger, Hadley and Betts (2023) explore the effects of removi...

Globally, human activities impose threats to nature and the provision of ecosystem services, such as pollination. In this context, ecological restoration provides opportunities to create managed landscapes that maximize biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture, e.g., via provision of pollination services. Managing pollination services...

Urbanization leads to the restructuring of plant-animal interactions due to environmental changes and introduction of non-native species that become part of local ecological processes. The conservation of pollinators in urban areas has received increasing attention. However, detailed quantification of available floral resources and their use by pol...

• A partir da avaliação da demanda e oferta de polinizadores em uma área, é possível definir um planejamento da paisagem que beneficie a produtividade agrícola, a segurança alimentar e a conservação da biodiversidade; • Propriedades rurais com áreas naturais conservadas e práticas agrícolas amigáveis à biodiversidade se beneficiam mais da polinizaç...

• Assessing pollinator supply and demand is a useful tool for designing landscape management strategies to improve agricultural productivity, food security and biodiversity conservation; • Rural properties with conserved natural areas and biodiversity-friendly agricultural practices benefit more from crop pollination and contribute to the conservat...

Citizen science has the potential to increase the efficiency of scientific data collection. However, such initiatives often focus on unique taxa for each record, not necessarily involving interspecific interactions. Moreover, whether openly available unstructured citizen science data can contribute to better understand ecological patterns is still...

Alien plants may provide considerable benefits to biodiversity in urban areas while showing low to moderate risk of negative impacts. Here, we evaluated the ecological role of the alien tree Bombax ceiba when interacting with nectar-feeding birds, including its potential for negative impacts as an invasive plant in an urban area in Brazil. At the c...

Street trees integrate the urban green infrastructure and are important elements for the maintenance of biodiversity, including pollinators. Thus, assessments of the spatiotemporal distribution and composition of these trees can subsidize strategies of conservation for different groups of pollinators in the cities. Here, we evaluated the spatiotemp...

Climate-driven range shifts may cause local extinctions, while the accompanying loss of biotic interactions may trigger secondary coextinctions. At the same time, climate change may facilitate colonizations from regional source pools, balancing out local species loss. At present, how these extinction–coextinction–colonization dynamics affect biolog...

Research on resource partitioning in plant–pollinator mutualistic systems is mainly concentrated at the levels of species and communities, whereas differences between males and females are typically ignored. Nevertheless, pollinators often show large sexual differences in behaviour and morphology, which may lead to sex‐specific patterns of resource...

Background: Animal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has pro...

Analysis of ecological networks is a useful approach to investigate species interactions. However, sampling method may influence the observed patterns especially in highly diverse communities. Here we evaluated how sampling decisions influence the characterization of a seed dispersal network between frugivorous birds and plants in a Neotropical com...

Floral traits mediate the roles of distinct animals as effective pollinators along a generalization/specialization continuum. Many plant species are visited by different pollinator functional groups and the specific contribution of each group is expected to reflect the set of floral characteristics defined by pollination syndromes. Although conside...

Frugivorous birds assume different roles in the organization of seed dispersal networks depending on how they interact with plants. Identifying the birds with the most important structural roles can shed light on how seed dispersal systems function. Here, we characterized the seed dispersal network in a megadiverse Neotropical bird community from B...

• Approximately 20,000 species of flowering plant offer mainly pollen to their pollinators, generally bees. Stamen dimorphism, a floral trait commonly present in some pollen flowers, is thought to be associated with exclusive pollen provision for highly effective bee pollinators. Notwithstanding, little is known about how stamen dimorphism is relat...

Flowering plant species and their nectar-feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats, and non-flying mammals, as well as one lizard feed on nectar, often act as pollinators and contribute to seed output of...

Flowering plant species and their nectar‐feeding vertebrates exemplify some of the most remarkable biotic interactions in the Neotropics. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, several species of birds (especially hummingbirds), bats, and non‐flying mammals, as well as one lizard feed on nectar, often act as pollinators and contribute to seed output of...

Global anthropogenic changes cause major impacts on species interactions, with cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. Animal-mediated pollination and seed dispersal are major mutualisms associated with distinct stages of plant reproduction. Nevertheless, we lack an integrated assessment on how multiple anthropogenic impacts affect these interr...

Many ecosystems have been modified by humans, creating novel habitats that include human provided resources. Gardens adjacent to native habitats may affect plant-pollinator interactions by altering the determinants of interactions and species specialisation. Here, we characterised a network comprising plants and hummingbirds interacting in a birdwa...

Animal pollinators are globally threatened by anthropogenic land use change and agricultural intensification. The yield of many food crops is therefore negatively impacted because they benefit from biotic pollination. This is especially the case in the tropics. For instance, fruit set of Coffea arabica has been shown to increase by 10–30% in planta...

Pollinators provide essential ecosystem services worldwide, but dependence on biotic pollination is higher in the tropics, where urbanization is expected to impact biodiversity more severely. Here, we present a global review on urban pollinator studies with emphasis on the tropics. From the 308 published studies that included information on pollina...

Urban green spaces may function as habitats for pollinators. However, it is poorly understood how distinct ecological drivers determine the interactions between pollinator and plants in urban communities, and how pollinator-friendly plants may be selected based on these determinants. Here, we describe an urban hummingbird-plant interaction network...

Seasonal variation in precipitation regimes influences species composition and plant–animal interactions. Such temporal variation is especially relevant in the Brazilian Caatinga, the largest Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest in South America, where bat pollination is unusually frequent in comparison with other tropical plant communities. Here, we des...

Fire acts as an ecological filter determining species diversity and composition of communities. In tropical sa-vannas in Central Brazil, natural fire happens through lightning, but anthropogenic fire is also common, either controlled fire prescribed for management of vegetation and to promote grass growth or accidental and intentional fires related...

When describing plant–animal interaction networks, sampling can be performed using plant‐ or animal‐centred approaches. Despite known effects of sampling on network structure, how samplings affect the estimates of interaction β‐diversity across networks is still unresolved. We investigated how the sampling method affects the assessment of β‐diversi...

Galls are atypical proliferations of plant tissue induced by highly specialized herbivores, such as some insect groups. Although gall inducers create these structures for their own purpose (food, habitat, protection against natural enemies, and harsh weather), many other organisms can use galls as secondary inhabitants. The creation of new and bett...

Functional traits can determine pairwise species interactions, such as those between plants and pollinators. However, the effects of biogeography and evolutionary history on trait‐matching and trait‐mediated resource specialization remain poorly understood. We compiled a database of 93 mutualistic hummingbird–plant networks (including 181 hummingbi...

Indirect interactions are central to ecological and evolutionary dynamics in pollination communities, yet we have little understanding about the processes determining patterns of indirect interactions, such as those between pollinators through shared flowering plants. Instead, research has concentrated on the processes responsible for direct intera...

Background and aims: Plant individuals within a population differ in their phenology and interactions with pollinators. However, it is still unknown how individual differences affect the reproductive success of plants that have functionally specialized pollination systems. Here, we evaluated whether plant individual specialization in phenology (te...

Background and Aims Plant individuals within a population differ in their phenology and interactions with pollinators. However, it is still unknown how individual differences affect the reproductive success of plants that have functionally specialized pollination systems. Here, we evaluated whether plant individual specialization in phenology (temp...

Urban areas contribute to conservation of pollinators, but we lack assessments from the most biodiverse tropical regions in the world. We synthesized studies on urban plant-pollinator interactions across Brazil, compiling 86 studies conducted in urban green spaces that reported 2678 interactions for 519 plant and 337 animal species. We evaluated th...

Indirect interactions are central to ecological and evolutionary dynamics in pollination communities, yet we have little understanding about the processes determining patterns of indirect interactions, such as those between pollinators through shared flowering plants. Instead, research has concentrated on the processes responsible for direct intera...

Interactions between species are influenced by different ecological mechanisms, such as morphological matching, phenological overlap and species abundances. How these mechanisms explain interaction frequencies across environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Consequently, we also know little about the mechanisms that drive the geographical...

Anthropogenic disturbances decrease the resources available to ants and simplify the ant fauna. This could affect ant–plant interactions, especially if key-species disappear. In terms of conservation, disturbances can select for ants resilient to disturbances, and such species can be considered indicators of succession processes. Here, we investiga...

Species are entangled within communities by their interactions in such a manner that their local extinction may unchain coextinction cascades and impact community dynamics and stability. Despite increasing attention, simulation models to estimate the robustness of interaction networks largely neglect the important role of interaction rewiring, that...

The relationship between plants and frugivorous animals is modulated by morphological and nutritional characteristics of fruits, as well as their seasonal availability across habitats. We evaluated fruiting phenology, fruit morphology and nutritional characteristics of 35 abundant plant species from 15 families associated with frugivorous birds fro...

Abundant pollinators are often more generalised than rare pollinators. This could be because abundant species have more chance encounters with potential interaction partners. On the other hand, generalised species could have a competitive advantage over specialists, leading to higher abundance. Determining the direction of the abundance–generalisat...

Differences in pollinator effectiveness modulate the evolution of specialized pollination systems and reliance on specific pollinators for plant reproduction. Some Neotropical plant families rely predominantly on hummingbirds for pollination, including Bromeliaceae. However, apparently hummingbird-specialized bromeliads are known to be visited by o...

Most angiosperms rely on animals for pollination, and insects, especially bees, are the most frequent pollinators. Many native Neotropical plants are frequently visited by the invasive honeybee (Apis mellifera), but its role in the pollination of these plants has been little investigated. We assessed the contribution of various floral visitors, inc...

Aim: We examined the effects of space, climate, phylogeny and species traits on module composition in a cross-biomes plant–hummingbird network. Location: Brazil, except Amazonian region. Methods: We compiled 31 local binary plant–hummingbird networks, combining them into one cross-biomes metanetwork. We conducted a modularity analysis and tested th...

Abundant pollinators are often more generalised than rare pollinators. This could be because abundance drives generalisation: neutral effects suggest that more abundant species will be more generalised simply because they have more chance encounters with potential interaction partners. On the other hand, generalisation could drive abundance, as gen...

Species traits are thought to predict feeding specialization and the vulnerability of a species to extinctions of interaction partners, but the context in which a species evolved and currently inhabits may also matter. Notably, the predictive power of traits may require that traits evolved to fit interaction partners. Furthermore, local abiotic and...

Pollinators may influence plant community assembly through biotic filtering and/or plant–plant competition and facilitation. The relative importance of each process, however, vary according to the scale and how strongly plants share their pollinators, and possibly in relation to the pollinator groups considered. We here investigated the assembly of...

We collected data on plants and potential pollinators in four communities with distinct vegetation types located in the Central region of Brazil, being all characterized by a marked seasonality: Cerrado woody grassland (Campo sujo), Chaco vegetation, Palm swamp (Vereda) and Pantanal Wetland.

Abstract 1. The temporal dynamics of plant phenology and pollinator abundance across seasons should influence the structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks. Nevertheless, such dynamics are seldom considered, especially for diverse tropical networks. 2. Here, we evaluated the temporal variation of four plant-pollinator networks in two sea...

Species traits are thought to predict feeding specialization and the vulnerability of a species to extinctions of interaction partners, but the context in which a species evolved and currently inhabits may also matter. Notably, the predictive power of traits may require that traits evolved to fit interaction partners. Furthermore, local abiotic and...

Nursery pollination involves pollinators that lay eggs on the flowers they pollinate and have their brood fed on flower parts or developing ovules [1, 2, 3, 4]. Active pollination, a ritualistic behavioral sequence shown by nursery pollinators when transferring pollen from anthers to stigmas, is known in only four plant lineages [5, 6, 7, 8], inclu...

Most tropical plants rely on animals for pollination, thus engaging in complex interaction networks. Here, we present a global overview of pollination networks and point out research gaps and emerging differences between tropical and non-tropical areas. Our review highlights an uneven global distribution of studies biased towards non-tropical areas...

Habitat complexity is an important factor structuring macroinvertebrate communities on macrophytes, and epiphytic hydroids may offer additional habitats for the epifauna. Caprellids are known to benefit from the association with hydroids, but it is unclear if epiphytic hydroids affect their abundance. In this study, we investigated if caprellid abu...

Latitudinal patterns of biodiversity have been studied for centuries, but it is only during the last decades that species interaction networks have been used to examine the proposed latitudinal gradient of biotic specialization. These studies have given idiosyncratic results, which may either be because of genuine biological differences between sys...

Aim: Among the world’s three major nectar-feeding bird taxa, hummingbirds are the most phenotypically specialized for nectarivory, followed by sunbirds, while the honeyeaters are the least phenotypically specialized taxa. We tested whether this phenotypic specialization gradient is also found in the interaction patterns with their floral resources....

Ecological network approaches may contribute to conservation practices by quantifying within-community importance of species. In mutualistic plant-pollinator systems, such networks reflect potential pollination of the plants and a considerable portion of the energy consumption by the pollinators, two key components for each party. Here, we used two...

Plant species within communities may overlap in pollinators’ use and influence visitation patterns of shared pollinators, potentially engaging in indirect interactions (e.g. facilitation or competition). While several studies have explored the mechanisms regulating insect-pollination networks, there is a lack of studies on bird-pollination systems,...

Elucidating the factors determining the occurrence of florivorous organisms is an essential step for comprehending arthropod–plant interactions, especially when considering florivores that use flowers/inflorescences as microhabitats. In this study, we characterize the interaction between florivorous thrips (Thysanoptera) and Palicourea rigida (Rubi...

Hummingbirds are the most common group of vertebrate pollinators in the Neotropics, associated with pollination of ornithophilous flowers. The group can be divided into hermits and non-hermits, in which hermits are often regarded as the most specialized group closely associated with more specialized ornithophilous plants. In this study, we investig...

Woody plants host diverse communities of associated organisms, including woodinhabiting fungi. In this group, host effects on species richness and interaction network structure are not well understood, especially not at large geographical scales. We investigated ecological, historical and evolutionary determinants of fungal species richness and net...

Ecological and evolutionary factors influence the presence of modules in species interaction networks, and these modules usually cluster functional similar species. But whether closely related species form modules is still unknown. We tested whether the interaction networks formed by frugivorous birds and Miconia plants are modular and evaluated ho...

• Floral visitors differ in their efficacy as pollinators, and the impact of different pollinator species on pollen flow and plant reproduction has been frequently evaluated. In contrast, the impact of intraspecific behavioural changes on their efficacy as pollinators has seldom been quantified. • We studied a self-incompatible shrub Palicourea rig...