Functional diversity of phyllostomid bats in an urban–rural landscape: A scale‐dependent analysis

Abstract

Urbanization is one of the most pervasive processes of landscape transformation, responsible for novel selection agents promoting functional community homogenization. Bats may persist in those environments, but the mechanisms responsible for their adaptability and the spatial scales in which the landscape imposes environmental filtering remain poorly studied in the Neotropics. We tested the hypothesis that landscape composition interacts with the spatial scale to affect the functional diversity of phyllostomids in an urban-rural gradient. Based on functional traits, we calculated indices of functional richness, divergence, evenness, and community-weighted means of morphological traits, and classified species into functional groups. We evaluated the changes in those variables in response to forest, grassland, and urbanized areas at 0.5, 1.25, and 2km scales. The number of functional groups, functional richness, and functional evenness tended to be higher in areas far from cities and with higher forest cover, whereas functional divergence increased in more urbanized areas. Our results show that the mean value of wing loading in the assemblage was negatively associated with landscape transformation at several spatial scales. However, environmental filtering driven by grass cover was particularly robust at the 0.5km scale, affecting big-sized species with long-pointed wings. Retaining natural forest in cattle ranging systems at ~12 km 2 appears to favor the functional evenness and number of functional groups of phyllostomids. Recognizing the scale of the effect on phyllostomid functional responses appears to be a fundamental issue for elucidating the spatial extent to which phyllostomid conservation planning in urban-rural landscapes should be addressed.

The interplay of spatial scale and landscape transformation moderates the abundance and intraspecific variation in the ecomorphological traits of a phyllostomid bat

“…Thus, they are thought to be better adapted to survive in deforested landscapes (Wordley et al 2017). These theoretical predictions have been empirically corroborated in several Neotropical locations (e.g., Meyer & Kalko 2008, Jung & Kalko 2010, Farneda et al 2015, Ramírez-Mejía et al 2020). However, most studies focused on the phyllostomid trait responses at the assemblage or trophic guild level (Gonçalves et al 2017, Brändel et al 2020, Farneda et al 2020), overlooking the potential intraspecific consequences of landscape transformation on bats’ ecomorphological traits.…”

“…During the sampling, we recorded two recaptures in two LU, and both times, recaptured bats were found at their original LU. For additional details regarding sampling and the phyllostomid assemblage recorded see Ramírez-Mejía et al (2020). After correlation analyses, we excluded landscape collinear variables and retained grass cover at 0.5 and 2 km scales and forest percentage at 0.5 and 1.25 km (Figure S1).…”

Mamíferos Urbanos Colombianos: Una Revisión De Lo Que Sabemos Y Lo Que Nos Falta

“…Además, un número considerable de esas investigaciones se concentró en aspectos descriptivos de la diversidad taxonómica de los mamíferos en un lugar particular, y sólo un estudio publicado recientemente presentó resultados a nivel de paisaje para entender los efectos de la urbanización sobre la diversidad de mamíferos. En este caso, se encontró que la diversidad funcional de murciélagos filostómidos está afectada por la transformación del paisaje urbano-rural de Villavicencio y que el efecto de la composición del paisaje dependió de la escala (Ramírez-Mejía et al, 2020). Este tipo de análisis se une a otros trabajos que han resaltado las complejas respuestas de la biodiversidad ante los cambios en y alrededor de las ciudades, y que se relacionan con las particularidades de cada urbanización (Grimm et al, 2008;Beninde et al, 2015).…”

More Urbanization, Fewer Bats: The Importance of Forest Conservation in Honduras

“…In these species their ear length and wingspan are relatively larger, in contrast to those of the large species Artibeus lituratus, found in CU-UNAH and Sabanagrande. Ramírez-Mejía et al [55] demonstrated that the most dominant functional group of bats in their studies were those with intermediate values of body mass and wing morphology, which represents the phyllostomids' adaptive response to landscape degradation.…”

“…In general, phyllostomids have an early activity peak and then declining activity through the night [57]. Habitat specialization, nutrient intake, and food procurement are features that are associated with bat success in transformed landscapes [55,58].…”