Analysing plant-pollinator interactions with spatial movement networks

1. Pollinators, such as bees, face the complex challenge of efficiently exploiting patchily distributed floral resources across large landscapes. 2. In the present study we consider the utility of spatial network statistics to analyse the foraging patterns of bees moving between feeding sites at various spatial and temporal scales. 3. We explain how spatial movement networks can be derived theoretically and experimentally to describe bee foraging decisions. 4. We illustrate this approach by analysing six datasets of bumblebees and honeybees foraging in arrays of artificial flowers, and showing how network metrics change as foragers gain experience with the spatial distribution of feeding sites. 5. We compare network analyses with more conventional statistics used to characterise bee foraging movements and discuss the implications of our novel statistical and modelling approach for pollination ecology.