Ecological Mutualism: Nestedness in Pollinator Networks

Plant-pollinator networks exhibit strong nestedness: generalist pollinators visit all plant species, while specialists only visit those also visited by generalists. This hierarchical structure — measured by NODF — confers robustness: removing specialists barely affects the network, while generalist loss cascades. Mutualistic abundance dynamics follow a two-guild Lotka-Volterra system with cross-guild facilitation.

Bipartite interaction matrix (plants × pollinators)
Network dynamics & nestedness
N plants: 12
N pollinators: 15
Nestedness: 0.70
Computing nestedness...
Green = plant, orange = pollinator. Circle size = abundance. Removing generalists cascades extinctions.