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Serrano Jerez, EduardoAuthorCalleja, J AAuthor

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July 28, 2025
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Overabundant populations of large wild herbivores disrupt plant-pollinator networks in a Mediterranean ecosystem

Publicated to: Plant Biology. 27 (6): 1047-1057 - 2025-10-01 27(6), DOI: 10.1111/plb.70053

Authors:

Hernandez-Castellano, C; Hernandez-Castellano, C; Valladares, D N; Valladares, D N; Calleja, J A; Calleja, J A; Serrano, E; Serrano, E; Perea, R; Perea, R
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Affiliations

Univ Autonoma Barcelona UAB, Dept Med & Cirurgia Anim, Serv Ecopatol Fauna Salvatge SEFaS, Wildlife Ecol & Hlth Grp WE&H, Cerdanyola Del Valles, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Ctr Invest Biodiversidad & Cambio Global CIBC UAM, Dept Biol, Unidad Bot, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Conservac Biodiversidad & Desarrollo Sostenibl, Plant & Anim Ecol Lab PAELLA, ETSI Montes Forestal & Medio Nat, Madrid, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Large herbivores are keystone species, so changes in their population abundance can have cascading effects on ecosystems. Over the last decades, many species of deer (Cervidae) have experienced unprecedented densities across many areas of the Northern Hemisphere, potentially leading to simplification of plant-pollinator communities, disruption of their interactions, and destabilization of ecological networks. Our study explores the impacts of increasing red deer (Cervus elaphus) densities on plant-pollinator networks. We describe, to our knowledge, the first large wild herbivore manipulative experiment with increasing densities, consisting of comparable hectare-scale enclosures in a Mediterranean ecosystem. We simulated two current scenarios of deer overabundance: high densities (>30 individuals km(-2)) and hyper densities (>90 individuals km(-2)). We compared these scenarios to an adjacent control exclosure (no deer). Deer herbivory reduced flower abundance of shrubs, as well as flowering plant and pollinator richness. Remaining plants and pollinators lost interactions, and some plants lost pollinator visitors. Network specialization and modularity decreased because modules (groups of strongly connected species) formed by herbs and specialist pollinators were gradually extirpated as deer density increased. This simplification increased network connectance and nestedness. Network robustness (a measure of stability) remained unaltered because the dominant plant, which attracted most pollinators, was unpalatable to deer. We conclude that, in overabundant deer scenarios: (1) impacts on plant-pollinator networks will increase with increasing deer density; (2) plant-pollinator networks will be eroded, especially if composed of palatable, rare plants, visited by specialist pollinators; but (3) plant-pollinator network stability will not be affected if dominant plants are generalists and unpalatable.
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Keywords

AbundanceCommunitiesDiversityFallow deerGrazing intensityManagementNetwork modularityNetwork robustnessPatternsPlant palatabilityPlant-herbivore interactionsPlant-pollinator interactionsPlant–herbivore interactionsPlant–pollinator interactionsRedRed deerUngulatUngulate overabundancUngulate overabundanceVisitor networks

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Plant Biology due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 58/273, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Plant Sciences.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-04:

  • WoS: 1
  • Scopus: 1
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-04:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 5.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 6 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 4.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).
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Awards linked to the item

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science (AEI) through the INCREMENTO coordinated project[RTI2018-094202-BC21, RTI2018-094202-A-C22] and the MULTISPECTRAL project [TED2021-129923B-I00; Next Generation EU/PRTR funds]. The funding sources were not involved in the development or publication of this work.
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