Agradecimentos: We would like to thank: Daniel Janzen, Winnie Hallawachs, Roger Blanco, Maria Marta Chavarria, Edgar Jimenes, Carlos de La Rosa and Alejandro Masis for support to conduct this research in Sector Santa Rosa (of ACG) and La Selva Biological Station; Darren Evans and Steven Le Comber for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) for the scholarship provided to H.O. to conduct this research (BEX 8927/13-8). R.P. was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP (post-doctoral grant 2020/06771-2). I.G.V. was supported by CNPq, scholarship no. 313801/2017-7. Research was performed under permits R-07-2015-OT-CONAGEBIO and R-08-2015-OT-CONAGEBIO, from the Ministry of Environment and Telecommunications (MINAET) and Comisión Nacional para la Gestión de la Biodiversidad (CONAGEBIO). CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest in the publication of the current article Ver menos

Abstract: Interaction network structure reflects the ecological mechanisms acting within biological communities, which are affected by environmental conditions. In tropical forests, higher precipitation usually increases fruit production, which may lead frugivores to increase specialization, resulting in more modular and less nested animal-plant networks. In these ecosystems, El Niño is a major driver of precipitation, but we still lack knowledge of how species interactions change under this influence. To understand bat-plant network structure during an extreme El Niño-Southern Oscillation event, we determined the links between plantivorous bat species and the plants they consume by DNA barcoding seeds and pulp in bat faeces. These interactions were recorded in the dry forest and rainforest of Costa Rica, during the dry and the wet seasons of an extreme El Niño year. From these we constructed seasonal and whole-year bat-plant networks and analysed their structures and dissimilarities. In general, networks had low nestedness, had high modularity, and were dominated by one large compartment which included most species and interactions. Contrary to our expectations, networks were less nested and more modular in drier conditions, both in the comparison between forest types and between seasons. We suggest that increased competition, when resources are scarce during drier seasons and habitats, lead to higher resource partitioning among bats and thus higher modularity. Moreover, we have found similar network structures between dry and rainforests during El Niño and non-El Niño years. Finally, most interaction dissimilarity among networks occurred due to interaction rewiring among species, potentially driven by seasonal changes in resource availability Ver menos