Cattle pasture management filters functional traits and alters trait–role relationships in plant–butterfly interaction networks

Grazing intensity and tree cover has potential repercussions for plant–butterfly interactions. Here, we evaluated how three cattle management types—open pastures (OP), woody pastures (WP), and pastures adjacent to forest remnants (FAP)—are associated with species roles within plant–butterfly networks in a deforested tropical dry forest (TDF) region of northern Colombia. Across 24 pastures, we quantified butterfly and plant traits, constructed interaction networks, and estimated species roles using centrality-based indices from a principal component analysis. Our results show that cattle management filtered both plant and butterfly traits, modifying the identity of interacting species even though overall centrality did not differ among management types. Trait–role relationships shifted across management regimes: corolla width influenced plant centrality in FAP (β = 0.036, p  < 0.03) and WP (β = 0.041, p  < 0.03), whereas butterfly wing length (β = – 0.028, p  = 0.049) and body length (β = – 0.073, p  = 0.011) were the main traits associated with their interactive roles only in WP. These patterns indicate that environmental filtering reorganizes trait distributions and the mechanisms by which traits shape species importance within plant–butterfly networks. Overall, we show that cattle management does not directly modify species’ interactive roles, but instead acts primarily as a trait-based filter, indirectly shaping plant–butterfly networks by altering trait distributions and trait–role relationships rather than the overall network structure. Promoting tree cover and maintaining forest adjacency within cattle landscapes may enhance the ecological functionality of mutualistic networks in TDF ecosystems.