Bats and bananas: Simplified diet of the nectar-feeding bat Glossophaga soricina (Phyllostomidae: Glossophaginae) foraging in Costa Rican banana plantations

Alpízar, Priscilla; Schneider, Julian; Tschapka, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01254

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Following typical community responses in human-modified landscapes (Teyssier et al, 2020) and agricultural habitats (Stein-Bachinger et al, 2020), the gut microbiota of bats foraging in conventional monocultures had lower alpha diversity and was mostly dominated by only few taxa, mainly Enterobacteriaceae and Burkholderiaceae (57.3% vs. 21.5% in organic and 19.06% in forests), we suggest this is caused by dietary changes and pesticide use. Glossophaga soricina showed a less diverse diet in both types of banana plantations in comparison to natural forests (Alpízar et al, 2020), and such a simplified diet may result in a reduced microbiome diversity (Amato et al, 2013). However, no significant differences were found in the diet diversity between both banana plantation types (Alpízar et al, 2020), indicating that altered gut microbiotas in bats from conventional monocultures might be caused by other sources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Glossophaga soricina showed a less diverse diet in both types of banana plantations in comparison to natural forests (Alpízar et al, 2020), and such a simplified diet may result in a reduced microbiome diversity (Amato et al, 2013). However, no significant differences were found in the diet diversity between both banana plantation types (Alpízar et al, 2020), indicating that altered gut microbiotas in bats from conventional monocultures might be caused by other sources. Since our focal species typically complements its diet with insects (Clare et al, 2014), an important protein source, lower insect availability in conventional monocultures (Matlock and de La Cruz, 2002;Markó et al, 2017) certainly leads to strong dietary changes in G. soricina, potentially modifying their gut microbiota composition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This suggests that the gut microbiota plays an important role in promoting fat deposition in these bats when food resources are patchy and more unreliable but are of less functional importance to bats in plantations with a constant access to food. The nectar produced in banana plantations provides enough food for five G. soricina individuals per hectare throughout the year (Alpízar et al, 2020), and colonies roost usually inside the plantations (Alpízar, unpublished data). High nectar availability in banana plantations translates to shorter foraging flights and less fat-storage needs, as well as the means to sustain heavier builds in bats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High food availability and the presence of structures that act as roosts have allowed G. soricina to seemingly thrive in banana plantations, where it feeds mainly from banana nectar. Both conventional and organic plantations provide them with similar banana-dominated diets, yet bats foraging in organic plantations have higher protein intake than conventional monocultures (Alpízar et al, 2020), a diet slightly more like their typical one in natural forestsnectar-carbohydrates complemented with protein from pollen and insects (Alvarez et al, 1978).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agricultural Fast Food: Bats Feeding in Banana Monocultures Are Heavier but Have Less Diverse Gut Microbiota

Alpízar¹,

Risely²,

Tschapka

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Habitat alteration for agriculture can negatively affect wildlife physiology and health by decreasing diet diversity and increasing exposure to agrochemicals for animals foraging in altered landscapes. Such negative effects may be mediated by the disruption of the gut microbiota (termed dysbiosis), yet evidence for associations between habitat alteration, wildlife health, and the gut microbiota remains scarce. We examine the association between management intensity of banana plantations and both the body condition and gut microbiota composition of nectar-feeding bats Glossophaga soricina, which commonly forage within banana plantations across Latin America. We captured and measured 196 bats across conventional monocultures, organic plantations, and natural forests in Costa Rica, and quantified gut microbiome bacterial phylogenetic diversity using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. We found that gut microbiota from bats foraging in conventional monocultures were overall less phylogenetically diverse than those from bats foraging in organic plantations or natural forests, both of which were characterized by diverse bacterial assemblages and individualized microbiota. Despite lower diversity, co-occurrence network complexity was higher in conventional monocultures, potentially indicating altered microbial interactions in agricultural landscapes. Bats from both organic and conventional plantations tended to be larger and heavier than their forest counterparts, reflecting the higher food supply. Overall, our study reveals that whilst both conventional monocultures and organic plantations provide a reliable food source for bats, conventional monocultures are associated with less diverse and potentially dysbiotic microbiota, whilst organic plantations promote diverse and individualized gut microbiota akin to their natural forest-foraging counterparts. Whilst the long-term negative effects of anthropogenically-altered microbiota are unclear, our study provides further evidence from a novel perspective that organic agricultural practices are beneficial for wildlife health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agricultural Fast Food: Bats Feeding in Banana Monocultures Are Heavier but Have Less Diverse Gut Microbiota

Alpízar¹,

Risely²,

Tschapka

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…However, bats may temporally extend their home range also into disturbed habitats due to their high mobility and use available food resources there, while still depending on pristine habitats for other resources such undisturbed roosting trees (Rippberger et al, 2015). For this reason, a high number of bats in disturbed habitats per se does not imply a high conservation value of these habitats for other, less mobile organisms (Alpízar et al, 2020; Alroy, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of land‐use on fruit bat distribution in different habitats along the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Vogeler

Tschapka

2021

Biotropica

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Patterns of species abundance and diversity have amazed ecologists for a long time (Hawkins, 2001;Rosenzweig, 1995). There are 36 biodiversity hotspots recognized in the world (Hrdina & Romportl, 2017), many of which are under severe human pressures (Myers et al., 2000). Mt. Kilimanjaro is one of such biodiversity hotspots as well as the highest mountain in Africa, harboring an extraordinary diversity of pristine and altered habitats distributed over a broad elevational range (Burgess et al., 2007;Newmark & McNeally, 2018). Kilimanjaro's climate and land use gradients affect species richness, since species survival depends also on the ability to use forest fragments and surrounding landscape matrices as foraging habitats. As the sole source of running water in the region Mt. Kilimanjaro is also

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High Resource Overlap and a Consistently Generalised Pattern of Interactions in a Bat–Flower Network in a Seasonally Dry Landscape

Tremlett,

Chapman,

Maher

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Pollination is an ecosystem process that is crucial to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function. Bats are important pollinators in the tropics and are an integral part of complex plant–pollinator interaction networks. However, network analysis–based approaches are still scarce at the plant species and bat community levels. We used metabarcoding to identify plant taxa present in pollen from fur and faecal samples collected across 1 year from three nectar‐feeding bat roosts in central Mexico. We calculated the frequency of occurrence of plant taxa and assembled a zoocentric network of bat–plant interactions. We constructed a year‐long network, encompassing the entire period of sampling, two seasonal networks comprising the wet and dry seasons, and six individual networks from sampling at two‐month intervals across the year. Four species of nectar‐feeding bats interacted with 36 plant species from 16 families. We found highly generalised interaction patterns across networks corresponding with opportunistic feeding behaviour by bats, with little seasonal variation in network structure. There was high resource overlap between bat species, and bats visited a diverse range of plant species even during periods with a high abundance of particular resources in the landscape. The diverse diet of nectar‐feeding bats emphasises the importance of floristically rich natural habitats in the landscape to provide reliable foraging resources year‐round in a seasonally variable system. While a generalised network structure is thought to increase robustness, further research is necessary to understand how fluctuations in pollinator abundance and diversity in the face of land use and climate change may impact bat–flower networks and the consequences to plant communities.

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Bats and bananas: Simplified diet of the nectar-feeding bat Glossophaga soricina (Phyllostomidae: Glossophaginae) foraging in Costa Rican banana plantations

Cited by 8 publications

References 31 publications

Agricultural Fast Food: Bats Feeding in Banana Monocultures Are Heavier but Have Less Diverse Gut Microbiota

Agricultural Fast Food: Bats Feeding in Banana Monocultures Are Heavier but Have Less Diverse Gut Microbiota

Effects of land‐use on fruit bat distribution in different habitats along the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

High Resource Overlap and a Consistently Generalised Pattern of Interactions in a Bat–Flower Network in a Seasonally Dry Landscape

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