A multifaceted approach to understanding bat community response to disturbance in a seasonally dry tropical forest

Abstract

Given widespread habitat degradation and loss, reliable indicators are needed that provide a comprehensive assessment of community response to anthropogenic disturbance. The family Phyllostomidae (Order Chiroptera) has frequently been the focus of research evaluating bats’ response to habitat disturbance in seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs). However, few studies compare this family to the larger bat assemblage to assess its efficacy as a bioindicator. We compared community and species-specific attributes of understory phyllostomid and all understory bat species: (1) along a gradient of habitat disturbance within a human-modified SDTF landscape; and (2) between forest and riparian habitats within each disturbance level. We captured 290 individuals belonging to 13 species and 4 families. Phyllostomid species exhibited greater sensitivity to disturbance than the understory bat community as a whole based on richness and beta diversity. Both groups were more sensitive to disturbance in forest than riparian habitat, but phyllostomid species were more likely to be lost from highly disturbed forest habitat. The two dominant species declined in abundance with disturbance but variation in body condition was species-specific. These results suggest that Phyllostomidae are more effective indicators of human disturbance in SDTF than the understory bat community as a whole and evaluation of bats’ response to disturbance is best accomplished with a multifaceted approach.

Habitat differences in seed‐dispersing vertebrates indicate dispersal limitation in tropical bracken‐dominated deforested areas

“…The species composition of bats was different between the two habitats, agreeing with other studies (Chambers et al., 2016; de Oliveira et al., 2017; Valle et al., 2021). These patterns could reflect the longer time that species composition takes to recover after disturbance (Dunn, 2004) or species‐specific differences related to food resources and home ranges (Chambers et al., 2016).…”

Chronic Degradation of Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests Increases the Incidence of Genotoxicity in Birds

“…Multiple studies have shown that the degradation process in SDTFs generate a significant loss of plant and animal biodiversity (see Gillespie et al 2000, Zúñiga-González et al 2000, Shahabuddin and Kumar 2006, Avila-Cabadilla et al 2009, Williams-Linera and Lorea 2009, Espinosa et al 2011, Falcão et al 2018, Valle et al 2021). In the case of plants, it has been proposed that the loss of diversity occurs as a result of increased stress caused by reduced coverage, which implies an increase in drought and solar incidence (Jara-Guerrero et al, 2021).…”

“…In the case of plants, it has been proposed that the loss of diversity occurs as a result of increased stress caused by reduced coverage, which implies an increase in drought and solar incidence (Jara-Guerrero et al, 2021). In the case of animals, the mechanism that generates the loss of diversity is less clear, but it is assumed that the changes may be due to a higher difficulty of the individuals to exploit the most degraded areas (Ordóñez-Delgado et al, 2016;Valle et al, 2021). It was found that the occurrence of micronuclei and nuclear abnormalities increased with the level of forest degradation although noticeable interspecific differences in this relationship were found.…”

Chronic Degradation of Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests Increases the Incidence of Genotoxicity in Birds

“…Multiple studies have shown that the degradation process in SDTFs generates a significant loss of plant and animal biodiversity (see Avila‐Cabadilla et al., 2009 ; Espinosa et al., 2011 ; Falcão et al., 2018 ; Gillespie et al., 2000 ; Jara‐Guerrero et al., 2021 ; Shahabuddin & Kumar, 2006 ; Valle et al., 2021 ; Williams‐Linera & Lorea, 2009 ; Zúñiga‐González et al., 2000 ). In the case of plants, it has been proposed that the loss of diversity occurs because of increased stress caused by a reduction in tree coverage, which implies an increase in drought and solar incidence (Jara‐Guerrero et al., 2021 ).…”