Urban metrics affect bee-plant network structure without shifting interaction dissimilarity

Abstract Urbanization is one of the main drivers of anthropogenic transformation, reshaping the distribution and abundance of floral resources and, consequently, altering the composition and organization of bee-plant interaction networks. In this study, we evaluated how different characteristics of urban green areas associated with urbanization (i.e., the extent of surrounding paved surfaces, the number of tall buildings, and floral cover), affect the structure of bee-plant interaction networks across 12 urban green spaces in a medium-sized city immersed in an Atlantic Forest domain in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We also determined how interaction beta diversity varied among all sampling sites. We recorded 1,138 interactions between 39 bee species and 75 plant species. In general, we observed that higher pavement cover reduced the number of interactions, connectance, and modularity, while floral cover promoted more frequent interactions. Moreover, we found that the most frequent visitors and floral resources were dominated by a few widespread species among urban areas, while interaction turnover among sites was largely explained by rewiring rather than species replacement. In contrast, urban features did not significantly influence the beta diversity of interactions among green areas, suggesting bee flexibility to stablish interactions in city. The findings underscore the key role of structural and resource heterogeneity in sustaining ecosystem services in cities and indicate that increasing floral cover implementing thoughtful urban landscape management can help mitigate negative impacts on plant-pollinators interactions.