Phillips, RyanPeakall, Rodneyvan der Niet, TimotheusJohnson, Steven D.2021-03-161360-1385http://hdl.handle.net/1885/227208Ecological niches are crucial for species coexistence and diversification, but the niche concept has been underutilized in studying the roles of pollinators in plant evolution and reproduction. Pollination niches can be objectively characterized using pollinator traits, abundance, and distributions, as well as network topology. We review evidence that floral traits represent adaptations to pollination niches, where tradeoffs in trait deployment reinforce niche specialization. In turn, specialized pollination niches potentially increase speciation rates, foster species coexistence, and constrain species range limits. By linking studies of adaptation with those on speciation and coexistence, the pollination niche provides an organizing principle for research on plant reproduction, and conceptually unites these studies with fields of biology where the niche perspective is already firmly established.T.V.N. was supported by an incentive grant from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (109547). S.D.J. was supported by the South African Research Chairs Programme (NRF grant 46372). We thank Nathan Muchhala, Jeff Ollerton, Supreet Sahoo, Thomas Semple, Robert Raguso, Lynn Watson, and Stella Watts for providing images, and Jeff Ollerton and an anonymous reviewer for comments that improved the final manuscript.application/pdfen-AU© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/nicheplantpollinatorspecializationspeciationcoexistence2020-0810.1016/j.tplants.2020.03.0092020-11-15Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)