Insectivorous bats foraging in cotton crop interiors is driven by moon illumination and insect abundance, but diversity benefits from woody vegetation cover

Kolkert, Heidi; Smith, Rhiannon; Rader, Romina; Reid, Nicholas

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2020.107068

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…4). This supports our hypothesis and corroborates previous studies that show that habitat heterogeneity in agricultural landscapes correlates with bat species diversity (Kolkert et al, 2020b;Monck-Whipp et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Far from home: bat activity and diversity in row crop agriculture decreases with distance to potential roost habitat

Hunninck

Coleman

Boman

et al. 2022

Preprint

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As demand for food increases, agricultural production is poised to increase dramatically. Pesticides are commonly used to maintain high crop yield, though they have several drawbacks, including reduced efficacy over time and harmful effects to human and ecosystem health. Bats are highly effective predators of crop pests and have great potential to reduce crop damage resulting from insects. However, few studies have investigated how pest control by bats might change over large expanses of continuous row crop agriculture, which is common in the Midwest. Agricultural landscapes offer few roosting opportunities and could be difficult for bats to traverse, which might affect the degree of ecosystem services provided by bats. We hypothesized that with increasing distance into uninterrupted row crop agriculture 1) bat activity would decrease and 2) bat species richness would decrease, but that these effects would be buffered when insect pest abundance is high. We deployed 50 acoustic bat detectors over 10 transects in east-central Illinois from July to September 2021. In each transect, we placed detectors on crop field edges at increasing distance from a large riparian corridor assumed to be frequented by bats. Bat activity was high across the landscape but declined by 56% from the forest edge to 4000m into row crop agriculture, while bat diversity decreased by 34%. Pest abundance seemed to decrease overall bat activity but had no effect on bat diversity. These results indicate that bats, although able to have a large effect on crop pest reduction, might not be as efficient in suppressing crop pests in vast uninterrupted agricultural landscapes which offer scant roost availability. Our work will inform recommendations to landowners and private lands managers on ways to increase bat access to roosts and forest cover near agricultural areas, thereby enhancing the potential for bats to provide pest control services.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Far from home: bat activity and diversity in row crop agriculture decreases with distance to potential roost habitat

Hunninck

Coleman

Boman

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…At the individual species level, M. molossus, P. gymnonotus and C. brevirostris all show increasing trends with higher levels of moonlight illumination, and all three of these species are more common above the canopy where they are more likely to be exposed directly to moonlight. It is not clear why these bats would prefer moonlight, but it is possible that certain prey are more likely to fly above the canopy on brighter nights ( Roeleke et al, 2018 ; Kolkert et al, 2020 ) or that bats are more able to detect predators with vision in moonlight. C. brevirostris did not significantly alter activity in moonlight in previous studies ( Appel et al, 2017 ), although in one study they trended in the same direction (positively) as found here ( Appel et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time of night and moonlight structure vertical space use by insectivorous bats in a Neotropical rainforest: an acoustic monitoring study

Gomes

Appel

Barber

2020

PeerJ

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Background Previous research has shown diverse vertical space use by various taxa, highlighting the importance of forest vertical structure. Yet, we know little about vertical space use of tropical forests, and we often fail to explore how this three-dimensional space use changes over time. Methods Here we use canopy tower systems in French Guiana and passive acoustic monitoring to measure Neotropical bat activity above and below the forest canopy throughout nine nights. We use a Bayesian generalized linear mixed effect model and kernel density estimates to demonstrate patterns in space-use over time. Results We found that different bats use both canopy and understory space differently and that these patterns change throughout the night. Overall, bats were more active above the canopy (including Cormura brevirostris, Molossus molossus, Peropteryx kappleri and Peropteryx macrotis), but multiple species or acoustic complexes (when species identification was impossible) were more active in the understory (such as Centronycteris maximiliani, Myotis riparius, Pteronotus alitonus and Pteronotus rubiginosus). We also found that most bats showed temporally-changing preferences in hourly activity. Some species were less active (e.g., P. kappleri and P. macrotis), whereas others were more active (Pteronotus gymnonotus, C. brevirostris, and M. molossus) on nights with higher moon illuminance. Discussion Here we show that Neotropical bats use habitat above the forest canopy and within the forest understory differently throughout the night. While bats generally were more active above the forest canopy, we show that individual groups of bats use space differently over the course of a night, and some prefer the understory. This work highlights the need to consider diel cycles in studies of space use, as animals use different habitats during different periods of the day.

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“…Bat activity over the lunar cycle is shaped by predator–prey interactions, as aerial insectivorous bats are simultaneously predators and prey (Lang et al., 2006; Vásquez, Grez and Pedro, 2020). Pteronotus rubiginosus and P. alitonus increase their activity with moonlight in continuous forest probably due to higher foraging success, as some insect orders increase their activity in nights of high moon illumination (Kolkert et al., 2020). The observed lunar philia of P. rubiginosus agrees with the pattern found in other areas of Amazonian continuous forest (Appel et al., 2017; Durán and Oviedo Morales, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there are many studies that evaluated the effect of moonlight on aerial insectivorous bat activity, these studies are concentrated in temperate regions (Perks and Goodenough, 2020; Saldaña‐Vázquez and Munguía‐Rosas, 2013). While previous research has shown that some aerial insectivorous bat species respond to moonlight in undisturbed tropical rainforest (Appel et al., 2017, 2019), such effects have rarely been evaluated in the context of human‐modified landscapes (Jung and Kalko, 2011; Lima and O’Keefe, 2013; Kolkert et al., 2020 but see Musila et al., 2019). Assessing the effect of moonlight on the activity patterns of aerial insectivorous bats in human‐modified landscapes is important to understand possible changes in ecosystem services provided by this bat ensemble (Pianka, 1973; Presley et al., 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat disturbance trumps moonlight effects on the activity of tropical insectivorous bats

Appel

López‐Baucells

Rocha

et al. 2021

Animal Conservation

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Changes in moonlight intensity can affect predation risk and induce changes in habitat use and activity of nocturnal species. However, the effect of moonlight on animal activity is rarely evaluated in human‐modified landscapes and can be of vital importance to understand possible changes in ecosystem services provided by light‐sensitive taxa, such as insectivorous bats. Fragmentation changes forest structure and affects light penetration across the landscape. In this case, the effects of fragmentation on bat activity can be modulated by cyclical variations of moonlight intensity. We acoustically quantified the activity of nine aerial insectivorous bat species in relation to moonlight at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazonia. We aimed to understand species‐level variation in activity across habitats (continuous forest, fragments and secondary forest) at different temporal scales: lunar cycle, dark vs. bright nights and within nights. Amazonian aerial insectivorous bats responded more to habitat type than to moonlight, with two and six species showing reduced activity in fragments and secondary forest, respectively, compared to continuous forest. The lower activity in secondary forest suggests that despite c. 30 years of secondary forest regeneration, it is still less attractive as foraging habitat. An interactive effect of habitat type and moonlight on bat activity was most evident when contrasting dark and bright nights. Our results indicate that fragments have reduced bat activity on extremely bright nights, probably due to higher predation risk in small fragments. Species that emit constant‐frequency calls (Pteronotus spp.) were the ones that most modulated their responses to habitat disturbance and moonlight. Otherwise, moonlight had little effect on hourly activity levels, irrespective of habitat type. Moonlight is capable of modulating the responses of some bat species in disturbed habitats, particularly in fragments.

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Insectivorous bats foraging in cotton crop interiors is driven by moon illumination and insect abundance, but diversity benefits from woody vegetation cover

Cited by 16 publications

References 60 publications

Far from home: bat activity and diversity in row crop agriculture decreases with distance to potential roost habitat

Far from home: bat activity and diversity in row crop agriculture decreases with distance to potential roost habitat

Time of night and moonlight structure vertical space use by insectivorous bats in a Neotropical rainforest: an acoustic monitoring study

Habitat disturbance trumps moonlight effects on the activity of tropical insectivorous bats

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