Impacts of land use change on native plant-butterfly interaction networks from central Mexico

BACKGROUND: Land use change is a key catalyst of global biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Deforestation and conversion of natural habitats to agricultural or urban areas can profoundly disrupt plant-flower visitor interactions by altering their abundances and distribution. Yet, specific studies analyzing the effects of land use change on the structure of networks of the interactions between particular groups of flower visitors and their plants are still scarce. Here, we aimed to analyze how converting native habitats affects the species composition of butterfly communities and their plants, and whether this, in turn, leads to changes in the structure of interaction networks in the modified habitats. METHODS: We performed bi-monthly censuses for a year to record plant-butterfly interactions and assess species diversity across three habitat types, reflecting a land-use change gradient. From original native juniper forest to urban and agricultural zones in central Mexico, one site per land use type was surveyed. Interactions were summarized in matrices on which we calculated network descriptors: connectance, nestedness and modularity. RESULTS: We found highest butterfly diversity in native forest, with the most unique species (i.e., species not shared with the other two sites). Agricultural and urban sites had similar diversity, yet the urban site featured more unique species. The plant species richness was highest in the urban site, and the native forest site had the lowest plant species richness, with most of the plants being unique to this site. Butterfly and plant compositions contrasted most between native forest and modified sites. Network analysis showed differences between sites in the mean number of links and interactions. The urban network surpassed agriculture and native forest networks in links, while the native forest network had more interactions than the agriculture and urban networks. Native plants had more interactions than alien species. All networks exhibited low connectance and significant nestedness and modularity, with the urban network featuring the most modules (i.e., 10 modules). CONCLUSIONS: Converting native habitats to urban or agricultural areas reshapes species composition, diversity and interaction network structure for butterfly communities and plants. The urban network showed more links and modules, suggesting intricate urban ecosystems due to diverse species, enhanced resources, and ecological niches encouraging interactions and coexistence. These findings emphasize the impacts of land use change on plant-butterfly interactions and the structure of their interaction networks.