{
  "abstract": "Automated monitoring camera systems offer an efficient approach for quantifying pollinator biodiversity and plant-pollinator interactions, but financial and logistical constraints limit the number of flowering plant species that can be monitored. Using a large European database of plant-pollinator networks, we evaluated whether plant subsampling can capture key metrics of interest (i.e. pollinator richness and network structure). We compared abundance-based, flower-shape-informed, phylogenetically informed and random plant sampling. Abundance-based sampling consistently outperformed random sampling, while adding flower shape provided little additional benefit and phylogenetic selection performed similarly to random sampling. Overall, monitoring 12-15 flowering species was sufficient to characterize key network properties across varying community sizes. Performance of abundance-based plant sampling declined in species-rich communities and when rare but highly attractive plants were present in the community, while a specific subset of pollinator species was consistently missed even by the best sampling strategy. Based on their relative contribution to interactions within each network, only 12.6% of pollinator species accounted for 95% of interactions, suggesting that AI classifiers could prioritize a relatively small subset of species. Our results provide practical guidance for designing efficient camera-based pollinator monitoring schemes at large spatial scales.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Species Interaction Ecology, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany."
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Y. Zhong"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. B. Lanuza"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. M. Heuschele"
    },
    {
      "name": "W. Glenny"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Rakosy"
    },
    {
      "name": "T. Knight"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3p7mtyz6qe1q5.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.22.753407",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753407v1.full",
  "id": "3p7mtyz6qe1q5",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753407v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "ecology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1105|Plant and animal studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214110934",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753407v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3p7mtyz6qe1q5.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:07Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.22.753407",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.22.753407v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:ecology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Optimizing plant species selection for automated monitoring of plant-pollinator interactions",
  "title_text": "Optimizing plant species selection for automated monitoring of plant-pollinator interactions",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:07Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3p7mtyz6qe1q5",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}