Abundance responses of frugivorous bats (Stenodermatinae) to coffee cultivation and selective logging practices in mountainous central Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract

Shifting and permanent cultivation, selective logging, cattle production and coffee plantations are among the most important factors in montane cloud forest conversion and disturbance. Although shaded-coffee plantations can contribute to the preservation of local species richness, abundance of organisms could be determined by habitat resource availability in agricultural landscapes. We compared abundance of Sturnira and Artibeus bats (Phyllostomidae, Stenodermatinae), in shade coffee plantations and disturbed cloud forest fragments, which represent habitats with different chiropterochorous plant density. We also investigated the relationship between bat species abundance and food plant richness, abundance and diversity. We captured 956 bats, 76% in cloud forest fragments and 24% in shaded coffee plantations. Abundance of Sturnira spp. (small bats) was greater in cloud forest than in coffee plantations, but Artibeus spp. (large bats) abundance was similar in both habitats. Chiropterochorous plant abundance was positively related with bat abundance for Sturnira spp., while chiropterochorous plant richness and diversity were negatively related for Artibeus spp. This suggests that frugivorous bats with different morphological and ecological characteristics respond differentially to anthropogenic activities. For landscape management purposes, the maintenance and augmentation of diverse food resources, for frugivorous bats with different foraging requirements in coffee plantations, will benefit the resilience of bats to modification of their natural habitat.

Responses of Tropical Bats to Habitat Fragmentation, Logging, and Deforestation

“…reached higher abundance in shade coffee than in the natural habitat, possibly as a result of increased food availability due to the cultivation of important fruit tree species alongside coffee, a management strategy that also favored the abundance and richness of fruit-and nectar-eating bats in coffee plantations elsewhere in Mexico (Castro-Luna and Galindo-González 2012a). Contrasting abundance responses for large Artibeus were found in another study in Mexico (Saldaña-Vázquez et al 2010). Here, shade coffee plantations and disturbed cloud forest fragments did not differ in abundance levels and also had similar availability of food plants.…”

Deforestation Impacts on Bat Functional Diversity in Tropical Landscapes

“…The consequences of habitat loss on Neotropical bats were previously studied with respect to changes in bat richness and abundance among different habitats e.g., [17, 20], among different successional stages of vegetation e.g., [54–55], at the landscape scale e.g., [24, 33–34], and analyzing trophic guilds as a way of evaluating the functional diversity of the group e.g., [18–21, 56]. In our study, functional diversity was evaluated using multivariate methods based on the functional traits of this group of bats, an approach that allows us to assess the impact of forest loss.…”

Intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting dietary specialization in Neotropical frugivorous bats

“…), while habitats with a poor richness and abundance of understory chiropterochoric plants contain lower richness and abundance of these bats (Saldaña‐Vázquez et al. ), and forests with lower richness and abundance of canopy chiropterochoric plants contain a lower richness and abundance of Artibeus species (Castro‐Luna et al. , Rex et al.…”