Bats play key ecological roles, also hosting many zoonotic pathogens. Neotropical bat microbiota is still poorly known. We speculate that their dietary habits strongly influence their microbiota richness and antibiotic-resistance patterns, which represent growing and serious public health and environmental issue. Here we describe the aerobic microbiota richness of bats from an Atlantic Forest remnant in Southeastern Brazil, and the antibiotic-resistance patterns of bacteria of clinical importance. Oral and rectal cavities of 113 bats from Carlos Botelho State Park were swabbed. Samples were plated on 5% sheep blood and MacConkey agar and identified by the MALDI-TOF technique. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using Kirby-Bauer’s antibiotic disc diffusion technique.We identified 596 isolates at the genus level and tentatively to the species level. Proteobacteria was the most abundant phylum in all the dietary guilds, representing 87% of the total identified samples. The most common bacteria within bat individuals were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella oxytoca and Serratia marcescens, and within bat species were Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas sp. and Staphylococcus sp. Frugivores presented the most diverse microbiota. In general, the antibiogram results indicated a low occurrence of resistance on eigth potentially pathogenic bacteria species. The resistance to antibiotics found on our samples was related mostly to the intrinsic resistance of the tested species.The low occurrence of resistant bacteria in our samples could be related to the well preserved environment where bats were caught. Once the major causes of resistance-acquiring are related to anthropic activites, the controlled access of tourists on certain regions of the Park seems to be effectively protecting the environment.

Mortality from collision with vehicles is the most visible impact of road traffic on wildlife. Mortality due to roads (hereafter road-kill) can affect the dynamic of populations of many species and can, therefore, increase the risk of local decline or extinction. This is especially true in Brazil, where plans for road network upgrading and expansion overlaps biodiversity hotspot areas, which are of high importance for global conservation. Researchers, conservationists and road planners face the challenge to define a national strategy for road mitigation and wildlife conservation. The main goal of this dataset is a compilation of geo-referenced road-kill data from published and unpublished road surveys. This is the first Data Paper in the BRAZIL series (see ATLANTIC, NEOTROPICAL, and BRAZIL collections of Data Papers published in Ecology), which aims make public road-kill data for species in the Brazilian Regions. The dataset encompasses road-kill records from 45 personal communications and 26 studies published in peer-reviewed journals, theses and reports. The road-kill dataset comprises 21,512 records, 83% of which are identified to the species level (n = 450 species). The dataset includes records of 31 amphibian species, 90 reptile species, 229 bird species, and 99 mammal species. One species is classified as Endangered, eight as Vulnerable and twelve as Near Threatened. The species with the highest number of records are: Didelphis albiventris (n = 1,549), Volatinia jacarina (n = 1,238), Cerdocyon thous (n = 1,135), Helicops infrataeniatus (n = 802), and Rhinella icterica (n = 692). Most of the records came from southern Brazil. However, observations of the road-kill incidence for non-Least Concern species are more spread across the country. This dataset can be used to identify which taxa seems to be vulnerable to traffic, analyze temporal and spatial patterns of road-kill at local, regional and national scales and also used to understand the effects of road-kill on population persistence. It may also contribute to studies that aims to understand the influence of landscape and environmental influences on road-kills, improve our knowledge on road-related strategies on biodiversity conservation and be used as complementary information on large-scale and macroecological studies. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.

The temporal stability of ecological properties increases with spatial scale and levels of biological organization, but how does it propagate across trophic levels? We compiled 35 metacommunity time-series datasets spanning basal resources (e.g., phytoplankton) to top predators (e.g., piscivorous fish) from 384 freshwater sites across three continents. We reveal how stability propagates from populations to metacommunities and across trophic levels through the complementary and opposing contributions of synchrony and variability. Temporal variability in abundance decreased from producers to tertiary consumers mainly at the local scale. Population synchrony within sites increased with trophic level, whereas spatial synchrony among communities decreased. The link between spatial synchrony and metacommunity variability was stronger for top consumers, but the indirect effects of environmental variables and diversity on temporal variability was consistent among spatial scales and trophic levels. We suggest that mobile predators can stabilize metacommunities if they buffer variability originating at the base of food webs. Our findings advance the notion that the trophic structure of metacommunities, which reflects organismal differences in body size, dispersal, and environmental tolerance, should be considered when investigating the propagation of ecological stability.

ResumoCapivaras são territoriais e vivem em grupos sociais, ocorrendo comumente em áreas antropizadas. Em algumas regiões do Brasil, estes animais apresentam infestação por carrapatos do gênero Amblyomma, que por sua vez são considerados como principal vetor biológico e reservatório natural da bactéria Rickettsia rickettsii, agente causador da Febre Maculosa Brasileira. Na UFSCar campus Araras, a interação entre capivaras, carrapatos e comunidade acadêmica é frequente, ocorrendo principalmente durante a estação seca. Este estudo teve como objetivo realizar um censo populacional das capivaras que ocupam o campus, identificando sua área de uso e se estes roedores se encontravam infestados por carrapatos. Realizou-se observação direta das capivaras, captura-marcação e recaptura com uso de um brete, e também coleta dos carrapatos nas capivaras e no ambiente. Registrou-se um total de 56 capivaras, com densidade de 1,50 ind./ha. Foram capturados 24 animais, sendo 25% machos e 75% fêmeas, dos quais 25% eram adultos, 45,8% jovens e 29,2% filhotes. A espécie de carrapato amplamente encontrada infestando tanto os animais como o ambiente foi A. sculptum. Conclui-se que o grupo de capivaras apresentou um número elevado de indivíduos por causa da abundância de recursos e ausência de predadores, e também com grande infestação por carrapatos. Palavras-chave: capivaras; censo; comunidade acadêmica; manejo; saúde pública. AbstractCapybaras are territorial animals that live in groups social occurring even in anthropized areas. In some

Lasiurus ebenus was known only from the holotype, which was collected in 1991, in an Atlantic Forest remnant of Ilha do Cardoso State Park, southeastern Brazil. The species was described based on qualitative and quantitative morphological features. Since its original description, based on a single individual, the taxonomic status of Lasiurus ebenus has been questioned. Here we report a second record for the species that comes from Carlos Botelho State Park, São Paulo, ca. 100 km north from the type locality. This new record allowed us to confirm the validity of the species, by presenting additional data that fits in the distinction from sympatric congeners proposed on the original description of L. ebenus.