Spatiotemporal and demographic variation in the diet of New Zealand lesser short‐tailed bats (<i>Mystacina tuberculata</i>)

Czenze, Zenon J.; Tucker, Jennifer L.; Clare, Elizabeth L.; Littlefair, Joanne E.; Hemprich‐Bennett, David; Oliveira, Hernani F. M.; Brigham, R. Mark; Hickey, Anthony J. R.; Parsons, Stuart

doi:10.1002/ece3.4268

Cited by 19 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(135 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Further studies are required to determine whether fine‐scale resource partitioning occurs between insectivorous bats (Adams & Thibault, ) utilizing the prey resources in cotton landscapes. Despite low‐resource portioning, our results indicate that male bats consume a more diverse diet than females, confirming that females show more selective feeding when faced with abundant food resources, such as crop pests (Anthony & Kunz, ; Czenze et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Insectivorous bats selectively source moths and eat mostly pest insects on dryland and irrigated cotton farms

Kolkert

Andrew

Smith

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Insectivorous bats are efficient predators of pest arthropods in agroecosystems. This pest control service has been estimated to be worth billions of dollars to agriculture globally. However, few studies have explicitly investigated the composition and abundance of dietary prey items consumed or assessed the ratio of pest and beneficial arthropods, making it difficult to evaluate the quality of the pest control service provided. In this study, we used metabarcoding to identify the prey items eaten by insectivorous bats over the cotton‐growing season in an intensive cropping region in northern New South Wales, Australia. We found that seven species of insectivorous bat (n = 58) consumed 728 prey species, 13 of which represented around 50% of total prey abundance consumed. Importantly, the identified prey items included major arthropod pests, comprising 65% of prey relative abundance and 13% of prey species recorded. Significant cotton pests such as Helicoverpa punctigera (Australian bollworm) and Achyra affinitalis (cotton webspinner) were detected in at least 76% of bat fecal samples, with Teleogryllus oceanicus (field crickets), Helicoverpa armigera (cotton bollworm), and Crocidosema plebejana (cotton tipworm) detected in 55% of bat fecal samples. Our results indicate that insectivorous bats are selective predators that exploit a narrow selection of preferred pest taxa and potentially play an important role in controlling lepidopteran pests on cotton farms. Our study provides crucial information for farmers to determine the service or disservice provided by insectivorous bats in relation to crops, for on‐farm decision making.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Insectivorous bats selectively source moths and eat mostly pest insects on dryland and irrigated cotton farms

Kolkert

Andrew

Smith

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To build a network of bat-insect interactions for each of the three forest sites studied (Danum, Maliau and SAFE), we sequenced prey DNA from bat guano using metabarcoding. DNA extraction, PCR, sequencing and quality-control took place following the methods outlined by Czenze et al (2018). Briefly, we extracted DNA using a Qiagen stool kit, then amplified it using arthropod-specific primers (Zeale, Butlin, Barker, Lees, & Jones, 2011) and sequenced the DNA on an Illumina MiSeq (Supplementary Information 2).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Genetic tools, particularly high throughput sequencing (HTS), are increasingly used for dietary analyses (Aizpurua et al, 2018; Clare, Fraser, Braid, Fenton, & Hebert, 2009; Czenze et al, 2018; Razgour et al, 2011). The application of DNA metabarcoding to bat and bird faeces makes it possible to obtain detailed information on previously unknown species interactions (Clare, 2014; Creer et al, 2016; Evans, Kitson, Lunt, Straw, & Pocock, 2016; Roslin & Majaneva, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered structure and stability of bat-prey interaction networks in logged tropical forests revealed by metabarcoding

Hemprich‐Bennett

Kemp

Blackman

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Data Accessibility Statement:Data are currently archived at the Centre for Ecology and 20 Hydrology Environmental Information Data Centre 21 (https://doi.org/10.5285/8b106445-d8e0-482c-b517-5a372a09dc91) and will be released from 22 embargo following publication. Specific analysis scripts are available on GitHub with links 23 given in the manuscript and will be archived on Zenodo prior to publication. 24 25 Statement of authorship: SR, EC, DHB, MS and OTL conceived the project, DHB, VK and JB 26 undertook field collections and laboratory work, DHB analysed the data with input from EC, 27 and DHB wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. 28 3 Abstract 29 1. Habitat degradation is pervasive across the tropics and is particularly acute in Southeast 30 Asia, with major implications for biodiversity. Much research has addressed the impact 31 of degradation on species diversity; however, little is known about how ecological 32 interactions are altered, including those that constitute important ecosystem functions 33 such as pest consumption.34 2. We examined how rainforest degradation alters trophic interaction networks linking 35 insectivorous bats and their prey. We used DNA metabarcoding to study the diets of 36 forest-dwelling insectivorous bat species, and compared bat-prey interaction networks 37 between old growth forest and forest degraded by logging in Sabah, Borneo.38 3. We predicted that rainforest degradation would cause measurable reductions in the 39 numbers of prey consumed by individual bats, and that this degradation would yield 40 networks in logged forest with lower functional complementarity, modularity and 41 nestedness than those in old growth forest.42 4. Compared to bats in old growth rainforest, bats in logged sites consumed a lower 43 diversity of prey. Their interaction networks were less nested and had a more modular 44 structure in which bat species had lower closeness centrality scores than in old growth 45 forest. These network structures were associated with reduced network redundancy and 46 thus increased vulnerability to perturbations in logged forests.47 5. Our results show how ecological interactions change between old growth and logged 48 forests, with potentially negative implications for ecosystem function and network 49 stability. We also highlight the potential importance of insectivorous bats in consuming 50 invertebrate pests.51 4 Malay abstract 52 1. Degradasi habitat merupakan suatu fenomena yang berleluasa dikawasan tropika, 53 terutamanya di Asia Tenggara dengan implikasi yang besar ke atas biodiversiti. Banyak 54 kajian telahpun meneliti impak degradasi habitat atas kepelbagaian spesis. Walau 55 bagaimanapun, dari segi mana interaksi ekologi diubah suai kurang diselidik, termasuk 56 interaksi yang membentuk fungsi ekosistem yang penting seperti pemakanan binatang 57 perosak.58 2. Kami telah memeriksa bagaimana degradasi hutan hujan tropika dapat mengubah suai 59 interaksi antara tahap trofik yang menghubungkan kelawar yang memakan serangga 60 dan mangsa mereka. Ka...

show abstract

“…In this regard, it is expected that some species will be forced to adjust their dietary requirements in response to environmental change or perturbation (e.g., Wong & Candolin, ). The studies compiled herein show that multiple terrestrial (Bohmann et al, ; Clare et al, ; Czenze et al, ) and aquatic species (Albaina et al, ; McInnes, Alderman, et al, ; Oyafuso, Toonen, & Franklin, ) have adaptive dietary preferences, presenting natural spatiotemporal changes in their diets' composition related to prey species' availability. However, generally, these studies are mostly descriptive, and only about one third (47 out 150) addressed impacts of human‐mediated changes in diets (37% of the studies on terrestrial organisms and 22% of the studies on aquatic taxa, see Table S1).…”

Section: Important New Research Avenues From Diet Studies Using Dna Mmentioning

confidence: 81%

DNA metabarcoding in diet studies: Unveiling ecological aspects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Effective conservation of species and ecosystems requires the understanding of important ecological traits, such as dietary habits, food webs, and trophic niches. In diet studies, the visual identification of partially digested prey has been enhanced with the recent more powerful and accurate technique, DNA barcoding. Here, we summarize the contribution of this recent methodology to the investigation of both terrestrial and aquatic taxa diet, and compare the level of novelty uncovered through the use of this technique regarding species' ecology. From a total of 150 studies analyzed, focusing on more than 250 vertebrate wild species, seven domesticated taxa, and humans, we suggest that barcoding has led to more significant findings for aquatic taxa and ecosystems, where direct observations of feeding events and consequent trophic niche understanding are typically limited. Finally, we introduce the term dietary DNA (dDNA) to describe environmental approaches that use DNA extracted from gut, stomach, or fecal contents, aiming to assess both species dietary habits and describe local biodiversity. Particularly, we highlight the complementarity of environmental DNA (eDNA) and dDNA as a new tool for biodiversity assessments in remote areas, including most of the aquatic realm.

show abstract

Spatiotemporal and demographic variation in the diet of New Zealand lesser short‐tailed bats (Mystacina tuberculata)

Cited by 19 publications

References 75 publications

Insectivorous bats selectively source moths and eat mostly pest insects on dryland and irrigated cotton farms

Insectivorous bats selectively source moths and eat mostly pest insects on dryland and irrigated cotton farms

Altered structure and stability of bat-prey interaction networks in logged tropical forests revealed by metabarcoding

DNA metabarcoding in diet studies: Unveiling ecological aspects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About