Uniting pattern and process in plant–animal mutualistic networks: a review

BACKGROUND: Ecologists and evolutionary biologists are becoming increasingly interested in networks as a framework to study plant-animal mutualisms within their ecological context. Although such focus on networks has brought about important insights into the structure of these interactions, relatively little is still known about the mechanisms behind these patterns. SCOPE: The aim in this paper is to offer an overview of the mechanisms influencing the structure of plant-animal mutualistic networks. A brief summary is presented of the salient network patterns, the potential mechanisms are discussed and the studies that have evaluated them are reviewed. This review shows that researchers of plant-animal…