Effects of tropical forest fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in a land-bridge island system

Estrada‐Villegas, Sergio; Meyer, Christoph F. J.; Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.11.009

Cited by 102 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In contrast, a study of Estrada‐Villegas et al . () found changes in community composition and a decrease in feeding activity of insectivorous bats with increasing forest fragmentation. Thus, it remains rather speculative whether insectivorous bats may have compensated for the loss of insectivorous birds in highly fragmented forests and future studies further need to disentangle the trophic role of insectivorous birds and bats in fragmented forest landscapes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Forest Fragmentation Drives the Loss of Insectivorous Birds and an Associated Increase in Herbivory

et al. 2015

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Insectivorous birds are known to play a decisive role for the natural control of herbivorous insects. Thus, they enhance the growth, reproduction, and survival of plant individuals and in the long‐term benefit plant regeneration. However, particularly in the tropics, forest fragmentation has been suggested to cause a loss of insectivorous birds. Yet, it is unclear whether this hampers the trophic control of herbivorous insects with potential consequences for plants. Therefore, we investigated the effect of increasing forest fragmentation on tritrophic interactions between insectivorous birds, herbivorous insects, and plants in a subtropical forest landscape, South Africa. We monitored the community composition of birds and estimated insectivorous bird abundances along a gradient of forest fragmentation. In the same sites, we installed bird exclosures on a common plant species (Englerophytum natalense) to assess effects of the trophic control of insectivorous birds on herbivorous insects and leaf area loss (LAL). Forest fragmentation strongly shaped the functional composition of bird communities, particularly through a loss of forest‐dependent insectivorous birds. Moreover, LAL was higher within bird exclosures than on control branches and increased with increasing forest fragmentation on the control branches. Altogether, forest fragmentation seems to hamper the trophic control of herbivorous insects by insectivorous birds through changes in the community composition. This, in turn, may interfere with tritrophic interactions and ecological processes. Thus, conservation efforts aiming at enhancing the natural control of herbivorous insects should focus on the maintenance of continuous indigenous forests that are well‐connected to smaller forest fragments on the landscape scale.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Forest Fragmentation Drives the Loss of Insectivorous Birds and an Associated Increase in Herbivory

et al. 2015

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“…For analysis, we counted bat passes following Estrada‐Villegas et al . (). Bat passes with very faint and therefore low quality calls were excluded from the analysis (13.9% of 7162 passes), to prevent a misleading identification.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…We started the monitoring of bats after sunset and finished at the latest at 2200 h. We recorded echolocation calls of insectivorous bats at the four corners of each study plot per season using a point‐stop method (Estrada‐Villegas et al . , Jung et al . ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats are Not Birds – Different Responses to Human Land‐use on a Tropical Mountain

et al. 2015

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Land‐use intensification has consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, with various taxonomic groups differing widely in their sensitivity. As land‐use intensification alters habitat structure and resource availability, both factors may contribute to explaining differences in animal species diversity. Within the local animal assemblages the flying vertebrates, bats and birds, provide important and partly complementary ecosystem functions. We tested how bats and birds respond to land‐use intensification and compared abundance, species richness, and community composition across a land‐use gradient including forest, traditional agroforests (home garden), coffee plantations and grasslands on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Furthermore, we asked how sensitive different habitat and feeding guilds of bats and birds react to land‐use intensification and the associated alterations in vegetation structure and food resource availability. In contrast to our expectations, land‐use intensification had no negative effect on species richness and abundance of all birds and bats. However, some habitat and feeding guilds, in particular forest specialist and frugivorous birds, were highly sensitive to land‐use intensification. Although the habitat guilds of both, birds and bats, depended on a certain degree of vegetation structure, total bat and bird abundance was mediated primarily by the availability of the respective food resources. Even though the highly structured southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro are able to maintain diverse bat and bird assemblages, the sensitivity of avian forest specialists against land‐use intensification and the dependence of the bat and bird habitat guilds on a certain vegetation structure demonstrate that conservation plans should place special emphasis on these guilds.

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“…Jung et al (2012) found that bat occurrence and activity was correlated to structural forest heterogeneity. Studies on the isthmus of Panama have shown that AIB react in more diverse ways to habitat patch isolation than other bat trophic guilds (Estrada-Villegas et al, 2010). While some AIB species disappear with urbanization (urban avoiders), others seem rather unaffected (urban adapters) or might even profit from human settlements, where they find high numbers of roosting sites (urban exploiters, Jung and Kalko, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More mobile bat species with small-surfaced and narrow wings are able to fly fast, cover long distances between roosts and foraging sites, and predominantly hunt in open space (Norberg and Rayner, 1987). Less mobile species with large-surfaced and broad wings fly more slowly but have greater maneuverability and rather hunt in habitats of high structural complexity such as forests (Estrada-Villegas et al, 2010;Kalko, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobility explains the response of aerial insectivorous bats to anthropogenic habitat change in the Neotropics

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Kalko

et al. 2015

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Effects of tropical forest fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in a land-bridge island system

Cited by 102 publications

References 61 publications

Forest Fragmentation Drives the Loss of Insectivorous Birds and an Associated Increase in Herbivory

Forest Fragmentation Drives the Loss of Insectivorous Birds and an Associated Increase in Herbivory

Bats are Not Birds – Different Responses to Human Land‐use on a Tropical Mountain

Mobility explains the response of aerial insectivorous bats to anthropogenic habitat change in the Neotropics

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