Experimental field exclosure of birds and bats in agricultural systems — Methodological insights, potential improvements, and cost-benefit trade-offs

Maas, Bea; Heath, Sacha K.; Graß, Ingo; Cassano, Camila Righetto; Claßen, Alice; Faria, Deborah; Gras, Pierre; Williams‐Guillén, Kimberly; Johnson, Matthew D.; Karp, Daniel S.; Linden, Valerie M.G.; Martínez‐Salinas, Alejandra; Schmack, Julia; Kross, Sara M.

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2018.12.002

Cited by 30 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Our analyses show that the assessment of ecosystem services provided by bats in transformed landscapes and agricultural crop areas remains largely unexplored (Toffoli & Rughetti 2017; Maas et al . 2018). Our results also indicate that recent molecular techniques have not been widely used to assess the services that bats provide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bats and their vital ecosystem services: a global review

et al. 2021

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Bats play crucial ecosystem services as seed dispersers, pollinators, controllers of insects, and nutrient recyclers. However, there has not been a thorough global review evaluating these roles in bats across all biogeographical regions of the world. We reviewed the literature published during the last two decades and identified 283 relevant studies: 78 dealt with the control of potential insect pests by bats, 80 related to the suppression of other arthropods, 60 on the dispersal of native or endemic seeds, 11 dealt with the dispersal of seeds of introduced plants, 29 on the pollination of native or endemic plants, 1 study on pollination of introduced plants, and 24 on the use of guano as fertilizer. Our literature search showed that queries combining the terms “seed dispersal,” “insectivorous bats,” “nectarivorous bats,” “use of guano,” and “ecosystem services” returned 577 studies, but half were experimental in nature. We found that the evaluation of ecosystem services by bats has been mostly conducted in the Neotropical and Palearctic regions. To detect differences across relevant studies, and to explain trends in the study of ecosystem services provided by bats, we performed generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) fitted with a Poisson distribution to analyze potential differences among sampling methods. We identified 409 bat species that provide ecosystem services, 752 insect species consumed by bats and 549 plant species either dispersed or pollinated by bats. Our review summarizes the importance of conserving bat populations and the ecological services they provide, which is especially important during the current pandemic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…enclosures) in agricultural systems can provide valuable information. However, results from experimental approaches are limited by their cost, duration, and can vary greatly between landscapes and crops (Maas et al 2018). Therefore, generalizations from such approaches can be restrictive.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendations For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats and their vital ecosystem services: a global review

et al. 2021

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“…In 2015, we created exclosures to prevent vertebrates (birds and bats) from accessing sunflowers (see Maas et al, 2019 for a review of exclosure methods). Exclosures consisted of nylon bird netting (No-Knot Bird Netting ¾ polypropylene mesh, Bird B Gone Inc R , Irvine, CA) draped over an area 4 sunflowers in width and ∼20 flowers in length (for a total of ∼80 plants) and secured to cover the tops of the flowers to a height of ∼2-4 feet above the ground.…”

Section: Vertebrate Exclosuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Field and Landscape Scale Habitat on Insect and Bird Damage to Sunflowers

Kross

Martinico

Bourbour

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Agriculture-dominated landscapes harbor significantly diminished biodiversity. Woody vegetation along field margins can provide farmers with ecosystem services and benefit biodiversity. However, when crops are damaged by the biodiversity harbored in such vegetation, farmers are reluctant to incorporate field margin habitat onto their land and may even actively remove such habitats. We investigated how damage by both insect pests (sunflower moth, Homoeosoma electellum) and avian pests to sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seed crops varied as a function of field-margin and landscape-scale habitat, as well as by bird abundance and diversity. Surveys for insect damage, avian abundance, and bird damage were carried out over 2 years in 30 different fields. The mean percentage of moth-damaged sunflowers sampled was nearly four times higher in fields that had bare or weedy margins (23.5%; $877/ha) compared to fields with woody vegetation (5.9%; $220/ha) and was positively associated with landscape-scale habitat complexity. Birds damaged significantly fewer sunflower seeds (2.7%) than insects, and bird damage was not affected by field margin habitat type, landscape-scale habitat variables, or avian abundance, but was significantly higher along field edges compared to ≥ 50 m from the field edge. Avian species richness nearly doubled in fields with woody margin habitat compared to fields with bare/weedy margins in both the breeding season and in fall. These results indicate that the benefits of planting or retaining woody vegetation along sunflower field margins could outweigh the ecosystem disservices related to bird damage, while simultaneously increasing the biodiversity value of intensively farmed agricultural landscapes.

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“…There is increasing evidence that insectivorous vertebrates have the capacity to directly suppress the abundance of herbivorous insects (e.g., Cassano et al, 2016;Kalka et al, 2008;Maas et al, 2013Maas et al, , 2019Mooney et al, 2010), and thus, indirectly suppress the resulting leaf damage (e.g., Atlegrim, 1989;Greenberg et al, 2000;Mäntylä et al, 2011;Marquis & Whelan, 1996;Sanz, 2001). Some studies, however, found negligible effects cascading from insectivorous vertebrates to plants (e.g., Karp & Daily, 2014;Mooney, 2007), which suggests the ecological mechanisms involved are complex.…”

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confidence: 99%

Trophic cascades in tropical rainforests: Effects of vertebrate predator exclusion on arthropods and plants in Papua New Guinea

et al. 2022

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Insect herbivores have the potential to consume large amounts of plant tissue in tropical forests, but insectivorous vertebrates effectively control their abundances, indirectly increasing plant fitness accordingly. Despite several studies already sought understanding of the top‐down effects on arthropod community structure and herbivory, such studies of trophic cascades in old tropics are underrepresented, and little attention was paid to top‐down forces in various habitats. Therefore, we examine how flying insectivorous vertebrates (birds and bats) impact arthropods and, consequently, affect herbivore damage of leaves in forest habitats in Papua New Guinea. In a 3‐month long predator exclosure experiment conducted at four study sites across varying elevation and successional stage, we found that vertebrate predators reduced arthropod density by ∼52%. In addition, vertebrate predators decreased the mean body size of arthropods by 26% in leaf chewers and 47% in non‐herbivorous arthropods but had only a small effect on mesopredators and sap suckers. Overall, the exclusion of vertebrate predators resulted in a ~ 41% increase in leaf damage. Our results, across different types of tropical forests in Papua New Guinea, demonstrate that flying vertebrate insectivores have a crucial impact on plant biomass, create a selective pressure on larger and non‐predatory prey individuals and they prey partition with mesopredators.

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Experimental field exclosure of birds and bats in agricultural systems — Methodological insights, potential improvements, and cost-benefit trade-offs

Cited by 30 publications

References 23 publications

Bats and their vital ecosystem services: a global review

Bats and their vital ecosystem services: a global review

Effects of Field and Landscape Scale Habitat on Insect and Bird Damage to Sunflowers

Trophic cascades in tropical rainforests: Effects of vertebrate predator exclusion on arthropods and plants in Papua New Guinea

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