Conclusions
The present study successfully draws a whole structure of flowering
phenology and dynamics of major flower visitors in the subtropical
alpine ecosystem. Because of the high proportion of endemic species and
isolated alpine regions, the diversity of alpine vegetation in Taiwan is
extremely sensitive to climate change. For instance, several plant
species from the lower elevation have been reported to migrate upwards
into the alpine regions, which may elevate the risk of extinction of
several alpine species (Chou et al., 2011; Kuo et al., 2021).
Furthermore, a higher risk of extinction is predicted for cold-adapted
bumble bees under global warming in Taiwan (Lu & Huang, 2023). On the
other hand, the symbiosis between dipteran insects and wild flowers is
expected to be robust under climate change (Iler et al., 2013; Doyle et
al., 2020). It implies that species compositions and plant-pollinator
networks in the alpine ecosystems will likely be modified differently
between bee-pollinated and fly-pollinated plants by climate change.