Conclusions
Our novel approach to molecular identification of bee pollen allowed us
to determine the relative abundance of different pollens from mixed
samples taken from foraging bees, which is critically important for more
precise estimates of pollen use networks (Bell et al. 2017). Our method
allowed us to understand ecologically relevant and nuanced
characteristics of plant-pollinator interactions, such as how many
species of Clarkia bees were interacting with in a given foraging
bout, and to what extent (Roslin et al. 2019). This, in turn, revealed
how Clarkia interacted via their pollinators, and provided
insights into more general patterns of species interactions. As the
theories of plant species interactions continue to incorporate
mutualistic, complex community dynamics (Morales-Castilla et al. 2015;
Vázquez et al. 2015), we believe these kinds of molecular approaches can
expand the broader toolkit of community ecologists and facilitate a more
robust understanding of species interactions.