Pest control service provided by bats in Mediterranean rice paddies: linking agroecosystems structure to ecological functions

Puig-Montserrat, Xavier; Torre, Ignasi; López‐Baucells, Adrià; Guerrieri, Emilio; Monti, Maurilia M.; Ràfols-García, Ruth; Ferrer, Xavier; Durán, David; Flaquer, Carles

doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2015.03.008

Cited by 134 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Specifically, a significant correlation between pink bollworm occurrences in P. kuhlii diet and proxies of pink bollworm abundances in nearby cotton fields suggests that P. kuhlii responded to pink bollworm irruptions with opportunistic feeding. Opportunistic feeding on pest species has been previously demonstrated for insectivorous bats species by using specific PCR assays to identify a single pest in their diet (McCracken et al, 2012; Puig‐Montserrat et al, 2015). Here we took advantage of the capacity of metabarcoding to identify various prey items in the diet of the bats to address how the trophic niche of P. kuhlii changes throughout the cotton season in relation to pest abundance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although we found high frequencies of pink bollworms in the diet of the bats, particularly on our last sampling dates (September–October), when the cotton crop was mostly developed or harvested, we suggest that in order to maximize the contribution of P. kuhlii in supporting the suppression of pink bollworms, it will be necessary to initiate a quick and strong response by the bats to pest irruptions early in the growing season. This may be done, for example, by providing alternative bat roosts in the vicinity of crop fields (Flaquer, Torre, & Ruiz‐Jarillo, 2006; Puig‐Montserrat et al, 2015) or by increasing the heterogeneity of the vegetation around the fields or hedgerows to increase arthropod diversity and bat activity (Froidevaux, Boughey, Hawkins, Broyles, & Jones, 2019; Olimpi & Philpott, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An appetite for pests: Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods

et al. 2020

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Conservation biological control (CBC) seeks to minimize the deleterious effects of agricultural pests by enhancing the efficiency of natural enemies. Despite the documented potential of insectivorous bats to consume pests, many synanthropic bat species are still underappreciated as beneficial species. We investigated the diet of Kuhl's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii), a common synanthropic insectivorous bat that forages in urban and agricultural areas, to determine whether it may function as a natural enemy in CBC. Faecal samples of P. kuhlii were collected throughout the cotton‐growing season from five roost sites near cotton fields located in a Mediterranean agroecosystem, Israel, and analyzed using DNA metabarcoding. Additionally, data on estimated abundance of major cotton pests were collected. We found that the diet of P. kuhlii significantly varied according to sites and dates and comprised 27 species of agricultural pests that were found in 77.2% of the samples, including pests of key economic concern. The dominant prey was the widespread cotton pest, the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, found in 31% of the samples and in all the roosts. Pink bollworm abundance was positively correlated with its occurrence in the bat diet. Furthermore, the bats’ dietary breadth narrowed, while temporal dietary overlap increased, in relation to increasing frequencies of pink bollworms in the diet. This suggests that P. kuhlii exploits pink bollworm irruptions by opportunistic feeding. We suggest that synanthropic bats provide important pest suppression services, may function as CBC agents of cotton pests and potentially contribute to suppress additional deleterious arthropods found in their diet in high frequencies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An appetite for pests: Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods

et al. 2020

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“…As people have brought in predators and commensal species, island bats have become increasingly imperiled, threatening to collapse local trophic chains and disrupt pollination and seed dispersal (61). Bats also feed on many pest insect species and act as a natural and effective pest control (6,(8)(9)(10)58). Insect-eating bats save maize farmers globally an estimated ∼US$1 billion a year from crop damage (58).…”

Section: Key Species For Ecosystem Functioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using these and other traits, they have evolved to thrive in diverse ecological niches and can feed on insects, small mammals, fish, blood, nectar, fruit, and pollen (5). They perform key ecosystem services, pollinating crop species in the tropics (e.g., bats pollinate the flowers of agave, making possible the distillation of tequila), dispersing seeds, and feeding on crop pests throughout their range (6)(7)(8)(9). Without bats, it is estimated that the United States would spend more than $3 billion a year on pesticides alone (10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat Biology, Genomes, and the Bat1K Project: To Generate Chromosome-Level Genomes for All Living Bat Species

Teeling

Vernes

Dávalos

et al. 2018

Annu. Rev. Anim. Biosci.

168

170

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Bats are unique among mammals, possessing some of the rarest mammalian adaptations, including true self-powered flight, laryngeal echolocation, exceptional longevity, unique immunity, contracted genomes, and vocal learning. They provide key ecosystem services, pollinating tropical plants, dispersing seeds, and controlling insect pest populations, thus driving healthy ecosystems. They account for more than 20% of all living mammalian diversity, and their crown-group evolutionary history dates back to the Eocene. Despite their great numbers and diversity, many species are threatened and endangered. Here we announce Bat1K, an initiative to sequence the genomes of all living bat species (n ∼ 1,300) to chromosome-level assembly. The Bat1K genome consortium unites bat biologists (>148 members as of writing), computational scientists, conservation organizations, genome technologists, and any interested individuals committed to a better understanding of the genetic and evolutionary mechanisms that underlie the unique adaptations of bats. Our aim is to catalog the unique genetic diversity present in all living bats to better understand the molecular basis of their unique adaptations; uncover their evolutionary history; link genotype with phenotype; and ultimately better understand, promote, and conserve bats. Here we review the unique adaptations of bats and highlight how chromosome-level genome assemblies can uncover the molecular basis of these traits. We present a novel sequencing and assembly strategy and review the striking societal and scientific benefits that will result from the Bat1K initiative.

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“…Bats contribute in a crucial way to the maintenance of essential ecological services, such as seed dispersal and insect population control (Wilson 1973;Kalka et al 2008;Kunz et al 2011;Puig-Montserrat et al 2015).…”

Section: Conservation Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat assemblage in a karstic area from northern Brazil: seven new occurrences for Tocantins state, including the first record of Glyphonycteris sylvestris Thomas, 1896 for the Cerrado

Félix¹,

Novaes²,

Souza³

et al. 2016

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The Cerrado, the second largest morphoclimatic area of South America, has many limestone outcrops with caves. However, studies of the bat fauna in karstic environments in the Cerrado are scarce. We present an inventory of bats in a karstic Cerrado area in the Tocantins state. We used mist-nets to sample caves, savannas, deciduous forests, and periurban environments. We captured 516 bats of 30 species, revealing that the study area is one of richest for bat species in the Brazilian Cerrado. Seven new occurrences of bat species were recorded for the Tocantins state, and we report the first record of G. sylvestris from the Cerrado biome. We recorded 21 species simultaneously at one cave, Gruta dos Moura, which is the highest species richness of bats for a single cave in the Neotropics.

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Pest control service provided by bats in Mediterranean rice paddies: linking agroecosystems structure to ecological functions

Cited by 134 publications

References 42 publications

An appetite for pests: Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods

An appetite for pests: Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods

Bat Biology, Genomes, and the Bat1K Project: To Generate Chromosome-Level Genomes for All Living Bat Species

Bat assemblage in a karstic area from northern Brazil: seven new occurrences for Tocantins state, including the first record of Glyphonycteris sylvestris Thomas, 1896 for the Cerrado

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