Protecting the Cerrado: where should we direct efforts for the conservation of bat-plant interactions?

Oliveira, Hernani F. M.; Camargo, Nícholas F. de; Gager, Yann; Muylaert, Renata L.; Ramon, Erpan; Martins, Renata Corrêa

doi:10.1007/s10531-019-01793-w

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The stark contrast of thin strips of dense and shaded forests surrounded by a matrix of savannas and grasslands greatly determines bat distributions and foraging areas of bats. Frugivorous bats, for instance, particularly from the subfamily Stenodermatinae, roost within gallery forests and feed on the abundant chiropterocoric plants found therein (Oliveira et al, 2019). In the present work, this pattern translated into a clear preference of frugivorous Stenodermatinae bats for forest interiors, while showing that floral visitation in these types of environments is also dominated by these opportunistic floral visitors, which apparently choose not to deviate much from their preferred foraging areas to seek floral resources when fruits are scarce in the dry season.…”

Section: Spatial Heterogeneity As a Source Of Resource Specializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal trends in floral visitation and interaction networks reveal shifting niches for bats in a Neotropical savanna

Diniz

Aguiar

2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Flower‐vising bats are important components of tropical pollinator communities, yet little is known about the structure of their pollination networks and how resource availability through time (seasons) and space (habitat heterogeneity) affects the extent to which bats interact with plants within a community‐wide context. This information is key for the conservation of threatened nectarivore species, such as the Cerrado‐endemic Lonchophylla dekeyseri, for which data on its specialization on floral‐resources is scarce. Within a seasonal and heterogeneous savanna in the central Brazilian Cerrado, we performed a year‐round assessment of an inclusive assemblage of flower‐visiting bats (both nectarivores and other guilds that can also feed on nectar) within a savanna‐edge‐forest gradient, the phenological trends and spatial distribution of bat and their resource plants, and the resultant temporal and spatial interaction networks between bats and plants in order to associate network structure to resource availability. Clear spatiotemporal trends emerged in the community. Nectarivores dominated the flower‐visiting niche outside forests and were prolific floral visitors, resulting in networks with lower specialization and modularity. These bats diverged into savanna foragers active during the wet season and the wet‐dry transition, and edge foragers active mostly during the dry season. The latter group encompassed L. dekeyseri, which visited mostly Bauhinia species. Frugivores took over as main floral visitors within forests, as well as during peak dry season, when fewer fruits were available, resulting in more specialized and modular networks. Our work shows that the turnover of floral resources across seasons and vegetation types has a defining role in bat–plant interactions and relates to network structure, as bat trophic guilds interact with plants in distinct habitats and times of the year. Frugivores dominate the flower‐visiting niche in certain temporal and spatial subsets of the network, which calls for the inclusion of this guild in future studies. Moreover, the high visitation to Bauhinia species by L. dekeyseri during the dry season might reduce competition with other nectarivores and is relevant to the management of the species, although more data is needed on its resource consumption on a larger time frame and across its geographic range.

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Section: Spatial Heterogeneity As a Source Of Resource Specializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal trends in floral visitation and interaction networks reveal shifting niches for bats in a Neotropical savanna

Diniz

Aguiar

2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…Estos modelos pueden ser al azar o dirigidos según el grado de importancia de las especies (desde especies con menos vinculaciones, hasta las más conectadas o viceversa). De este modo, se obtienen curvas de extinción secundaria que muestran el grado de decrecimiento tanto de la comunidad de plantas como de murciélagos de acuerdo con la perdida (co-extinciones) de especies especialistas o generalistas de comunidad contraria (Oliveira et al, 2019). Este análisis fue realizado por medio de la función second.extinct del paquete Bipartite (Dormann et al, 2019), de modo que los valores obtenidos pueden ubicarse entre cero y uno, siendo cercanos a 1 aquellos con un mayor porcentaje de robustez, y gráficamente, aquellos con menor pendiente.…”

Section: Materiales Y Métodosunclassified

“…Además, la estructura de la red, la interacción de las especies y su rol dentro de la comunidad, puede ser una medida de la dinámica y robustez del ecosistema . La métrica de robustez, debido a procesos de co-extinciones secundarias (Memmott et al, 2004), permite conocer la tolerancia de una red frente a la pérdida de especies (Hagen et al, 2012;Oliveira et al, 2019) una medida especialmente relevante en ecosistemas amenazados por acciones antrópicas, tal como el BsT del Valle del Cauca.…”

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Interacciones murciélago-flor en el Bosque Seco Tropical del Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Carvajal

Benavides

Bernal-Rivera

et al. 2022

Biota

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El Bosque seco Tropical (BsT) del Valle del Cauca está sometido a fuertes presiones, sin embargo, es un ecosistema en el que se generan procesos importantes para la conservación de la diversidad biológica, mantenimiento de estructura y función de los ecosistemas, producción de alimentos y economía, como la polinización. Entre los polinizadores destacan los murciélagos, cuyas relaciones han sido poco estudiadas en este contexto, por lo tanto, se buscó identificar las interacciones entre plantas y murciélagos con alto consumo de néctar en diez remanentes de BsT del departamento. Para esto se realizaron capturas de quirópteros nectarívoros-polinívoros y la toma de cargas polínicas en pelaje y heces. Se encontraron seis especies de murciélagos y 77 especies vegetales en interacción, las cuales formaron una red de topología modular, con dos especies animales generalistas que representaron casi el 80 % de las interacciones. El modelamiento de robustez de la red frente a la perdida de especies (extinciones secundarias) indicó que fue robusto a la pérdida de especies especialistas, pero demostró fragilidad a la eliminación de los nodos generalistas, principalmente para murciélagos. Es necesario implementar estrategias de conservación para el BsT que consideren especies de murciélagos polinizadores y plantas nativas que contribuyen al mantenimiento del ecosistema y de los servicios ecosistémicos derivados.

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“…Negative effects to bat hosts, such as roost disruption and habitat fragmentation, may affect in interspecific interactions and also local and/or regional ecosystems (Pilosof et al 2012 ; Bolívar-Cimé et al 2018 ). Effects of environmental impacts on bat-plant interactions for feeding and for roosting are apparently better understood than those between bats and their ectoparasites (Oliveira et al 2019 ; Hemprich-Bennett et al 2021 ; Tormanen and Garrie 2021 ). Although most studies about bat and bat-ectoparasite interactions are historically descriptive, they provide crucial data to understand the host-parasite dynamics across diverse environments (Patterson et al 2007 ; Fagundes et al 2017 ; Salinas-Ramos et al 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of studies about bat-fly interactions inside roosts, with observations on partnership patterns for publications

2022

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Pressures from anthropogenic disturbances have triggered a wealth of studies focusing on the assessment and mitigation of the negative impacts of these disturbances on inter and intraspecific ecological interactions, including bats and bat flies in their roosts. The heterogeneity of research methods employed for these studies and the scientific imbalance between countries may constrain advances and the consolidation of the knowledge on this subject. We reviewed the literature regarding bat and bat-ectoparasite interactions in roosts assessing global research trends and patterns of author collaborative work to be able to identify key questions for future studies and potential initiatives to improve the knowledge on this subject. Current information available has mostly come from the Americas and is predominantly focused on the recognition and description of parasite-host interactions between bats and bat flies. Our findings suggest the value of increasing collaboration for future research, as several countries with largely diverse environments and high organismal richness are disconnected from the countries that produce the most publications in this area, and/or have low records of publications. These regions are in the Global South, mostly in South American and African countries. We suggest that more collaborative networks may increase scientific production in the area, and that investing in local research development and enhancing partnerships for publications may strengthen the field. These research programs and collaborations are key for the development of conservation strategies for bats and bat flies, for their roosts, and for understanding bat and bat-ectoparasite interactions. Graphical abstract Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00436-022-07635-z.

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Protecting the Cerrado: where should we direct efforts for the conservation of bat-plant interactions?

Cited by 8 publications

References 56 publications

Spatiotemporal trends in floral visitation and interaction networks reveal shifting niches for bats in a Neotropical savanna

Spatiotemporal trends in floral visitation and interaction networks reveal shifting niches for bats in a Neotropical savanna

Interacciones murciélago-flor en el Bosque Seco Tropical del Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Review of studies about bat-fly interactions inside roosts, with observations on partnership patterns for publications

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