Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape

Rocha, Ricardo; Ovaskainen, Otso; López‐Baucells, Adrià; Farneda, Fábio Z.; Sampaio, Erica M.; Bobrowiec, Paulo Estefano Dineli; Cabeza, Mar; Palmeirim, Jorge M.; Meyer, Christoph F. J.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21999-2

Cited by 63 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The conservation value of pasture, cropland, and secondary forest for bats critically depends on landscape context, generally being greater in mosaic landscapes where patches of residual tree cover (e.g., riparian vegetation, live fences) are located close to old growth forest (Estrada, Coates‐Estrada, & Meritt, ; Vleut, Levy‐Tacher, Galindo‐González, de Boer, & Ramírez‐Marcial, ). For secondary forest in particular, their long‐term protection against human land‐use changes is pivotal to achieving significant taxonomic and functional recovery of Neotropical bat assemblages in fragmented landscapes (Farneda et al, , ; Rocha et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats

2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human land‐use changes are particularly extensive in tropical regions, representing one of the greatest threats to terrestrial biodiversity and a key research topic in conservation. However, studies considering the effects of different types of anthropogenic disturbance on the functional dimension of biodiversity in human‐modified landscapes are rare. Here, we obtained data through an extensive review of peer‐reviewed articles and compared 30 Neotropical bat assemblages in well‐preserved primary forest and four different human‐disturbed habitats in terms of their functional and taxonomic diversity. We found that disturbed habitats that are structurally less similar to primary forest (pasture, cropland, and early‐stage secondary forest) were characterized by a lower functional and taxonomic diversity, as well as community‐level functional uniqueness. These habitats generally retained fewer species that perform different ecological functions compared to higher‐quality landscape matrices, such as agroforestry. According to functional trait composition, different bat ensembles respond differently to landscape change, negatively affecting mainly gleaning insectivorous bats in pasture, narrow‐range species in cropland, and heavier animalivorous bats in secondary forest. Although our results highlight the importance of higher‐quality matrix habitats to support elevated functional and taxonomic bat diversity, the conservation of bat species that perform different ecological functions in the mosaic of human‐modified habitats also depends on the irreplaceable conservation value of well‐preserved primary forests. Our study based on a pooled analysis of individual studies provides novel insights into the effects of different human‐modified habitats on Neotropical bat assemblages.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats

2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In general, across the BDFFP, the understory is dominated by a few common species, such as the frugivores Carollia perspicillata and Rhinophylla pumilio, and the aerial insectivore Pteronotus cf. rubiginosus [62,63]. These three species also occur in the upper forest strata, and both frugivores appear to utilize more forest strata in fragments, particularly 1 ha and 10 ha sites.…”

Section: Species-specific Strata Associationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Effects of Forest Fragmentation on the Vertical Stratification of Neotropical Bats

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Vertical stratification is a key component of the biological complexity of rainforests. Understanding community- and species-level responses to disturbance across forest strata is paramount for evidence-based conservation and management. However, even for bats, known to extensively explore multiple layers of the complex three-dimensional forest space, studies are biased towards understory-based surveys and only few assessments of vertical stratification were done in fragmented landscapes. Using both ground and canopy mist-nets, we investigated how the vertical structure of bat assemblages is influenced by forest fragmentation in the experimentally fragmented landscape of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil. Over a three year-period, we captured 3077 individuals of 46 species in continuous forest (CF) and in 1, 10 and 100 ha forest fragments. In both CF and forest fragments, the upper forest strata sustained more diverse bat assemblages than the equivalent understory layer, and the midstory layers had significantly higher bat abundance in fragments than in CF. Artibeus lituratus and Rhinophylla pumilio exhibited significant shifts in their vertical stratification patterns between CF and fragments (e.g., R. pumilio was more associated with the upper strata in fragments than in CF). Altogether, our study suggests that fragmentation modulates the vertical stratification of bat assemblages.

show abstract

“…We expected that differences in phylogenetic diversity between forest fragments of different size will depend on the habitat quality therein so that the interaction between IEM gradient and forest size (habitat amount) will affect both phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity. The assemblages in the secondary forest matrix should retain the least total evolutionary history due to selection of bat lineages that are best adapted to different levels of habitat quality (Rocha et al 2018), followed by edges, while the interiors of continuous forest should harbour the most evolutionary history due to greatest resource availability (Ries and Sisk 2004). Accordingly, phylogenetic clustering should be strongest in the matrix surrounding the smallest forest fragments as habitat filtering would result in each habitat category harbouring lineages that have already been adapted to a specific set of habitat conditions (Farneda et al 2015;Ferreira et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Erosion of phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical bat assemblages: findings from a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The traditional focus on taxonomic diversity metrics for investigating species responses to habitat loss and fragmentation has limited our understanding of how biodiversity is impacted by habitat modification. This is particularly true for taxonomic groups such as bats which exhibit species-specific responses. Here, we investigate phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity of Neotropical bat assemblages across two environmental gradients, one in habitat quality and one in habitat amount. We surveyed bats in 39 sites located across a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment in the Brazilian Amazon, representing a gradient of habitat quality (interior-edge-matrix, hereafter IEM) in both continuous forest and forest fragments of different sizes (1, 10, and 100 ha; forest size gradient). For each habitat category, we quantified alpha and beta phylogenetic diversity, then used linear mixedeffects models and cluster analysis to explore how forest area and IEM gradient affect phylogenetic diversity. We found that the secondary forest matrix harboured significantly lower total evolutionary history compared to the fragment interiors, especially the matrix near the 1 ha fragments, containing bat assemblages with more closely related species. Forest fragments ≥ 10 ha had levels of phylogenetic richness similar to continuous forest, suggesting that large fragments retain considerable levels of evolutionary history. The edge and matrix adjacent to large fragments tend to have closely related lineages nonetheless, suggesting phylogenetic homogenization in these IEM gradient categories. Thus, despite the high mobility of bats, fragmentation still induces considerable levels of erosion of phylogenetic diversity, suggesting that the full amount of evolutionary history might not be able to persist in present-day human-modified landscapes. Communicated by Raphael K. Didham. Our study highlights the erosion of phylogenetic diversity of bat assemblages associated with habitat fragmentation and degradation in the world's largest and longest-running whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment. This work advances our understanding of the effects of habitat modification on bats as key ecosystem service providers in tropical ecosystems.

show abstract

Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape

Cited by 63 publications

References 68 publications

Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats

Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats

Effects of Forest Fragmentation on the Vertical Stratification of Neotropical Bats

Erosion of phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical bat assemblages: findings from a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About