| Title: |
Forest Loss Changes Bat Diversity and Natural Pest Control Dynamics |
| Authors: |
Montauban, Cecilia M; Devenish, Adam JM; Budinski, Ivana; Annorbah, Nathaniel ND; Dwumah, Afrifa K; Welch, Andreanna J; Tobias, Joseph A |
| Source: |
Abstracts Book: 52nd North American Symposium on Bat Research: NASBR; 2024 Oct 23-26; Guadalajara, Mexico |
| Publisher Information: |
North American Society for Bat Research |
| Publication Year: |
2024 |
| Collection: |
RADaR - Digital Repository of Archived Publications Institute for Biological Research "Sinisa Stankovic" / РАДаР - Репозиторијум Архивираних Дигиталних Радова Институт за биолошка истраживања "Синиша Станковић" |
| Description: |
Increasing agricultural production to meet rapidly growing demand for food is driving widespread conversion of natural habitats to arable land. Safeguarding biodiversity while improving food security of local communities remains a key global challenge, especially in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where the population is expected to double by 2050. To develop sustainable solutions to this trade-off, we need to better understand natural regulation processes. Bats are widely regarded as a major predator of crop pests, yet little is known about them in African agroecosystems. We investigated how land cover change from forest to agriculture altered the diversity of bat assemblages in tropical evergreen rainforests of Ghana, and the role of the bats as natural pest consumers across the gradient. Between 2021 and 2022, 995 bats were captured across two field seasons, and were confirmed to belong to a total of 40 different species based on cytb sequences. Phylogenetic analyses were performed to examine cryptic diversity complexes. We find a shift in bat species diversity and abundance, with some forest-dependent species absent from agricultural areas. From metabarcoding dietary analyses of 400 faecal samples of insectivorous species, bats were found to consume detrimental agricultural pests and vectors of disease, with differing proportions and prevalence of pests in their diets across land use types. We highlight the proportion of these pests and disease vectors that are consumed by forest-dependent bats, a service at risk of being lost. Our study highlights the degradation of ecological interactions in changing landscapes, with important implications for conserving their function and stability. ; Abstracts Book: 52nd North American Symposium on Bat Research: NASBR; 2024 Oct 23-26; Guadalajara, Mexico. North American Society for Bat Research; 2024. p. 126. |
| Document Type: |
conference object |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/7152; https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/bitstream/id/19111/Montauban et al (2024) NASBR.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_ibiss_7152 |
| Availability: |
https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/7152; https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/bitstream/id/19111/Montauban et al (2024) NASBR.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_ibiss_7152 |
| Rights: |
openAccess ; ARR ; © 2024 by the North American Society for Bat Research |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.7168EEA6 |
| Database: |
BASE |