Assemblage-level responses of Neotropical bats to forest loss and fragmentation |
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| Institution: | 1. Programa de Investigaciones de Biodiversidad Argentina (PIDBA), Programa de Conservación de los Murciélagos de Argentina (PCMA), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e IML, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205, 4000 Tucumán, Argentina;2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Crisóstomo Álvarez 722, 4000 Tucumán, Argentina;3. Fundación Miguel Lillo, Miguel Lillo 251, 4000 Tucumán, Argentina;1. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA;2. Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso de Sul, 79070-900 Campo Grande, Brazil;1. Department of Ecology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, PO Box 68020, 21941-902 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;2. Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, National Institute for Amazonian Research and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 69011-970 Manaus, Brazil;3. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, University of Lisbon, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal;4. Metapopulation Research Centre, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland;5. Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences, 08402 Granollers, Spain;6. Department of Animal Physiology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;7. School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, M5 4WT Salford, United Kingdom;1. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal;2. BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal;3. University of Stirling, Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Stirling, United Kingdom;4. Centre d''Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO, UMR 7204), CNRS, MNHN, Sorbonne-Université, Concarneau, Paris, France;5. The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA;6. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China;7. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom;8. Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia;9. Langkawi Research Centre, Campus of Tunku Abdul Halim Mu''adzam Shah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Teluk Yu, Kampung Kok, 07000 Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia |
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| Abstract: | Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most important causes of biological diversity loss, changing the properties of the remaining environment. The Neotropical Region is one of the most affected areas due to the conversion of natural habitats into agricultural activities and deforestation. In this region, bats represent almost 50% of all mammal species, reaching the highest taxonomic and functional diversity. Bats are valuable indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem health, but their response to habitat loss and fragmentation was poorly studied in Argentina. The aim of this study was to analyze the response of bat assemblages to habitat alteration in Northwestern Argentina. The specimens were collected in eight different localities, four well-preserved and four disturbed sites of the Yungas Forests. To describe the structure of bat assemblages, rank-abundance curves, species richness and Shannon (H’) and Simpson (D’) diversity indexes were calculated. To test the assemblage variations among sites, PCA and NPMANOVA analysis were performed. After 96 sampling nights, a total of 565 bats from 23 species were captured. A great variation in the assemblage structure was registered, regardless the disturbance level of the sites. These variations were not significantly different according to statistical analysis. The results support the hypothesis that areas with moderate fragmentation can sustain a high diversity of bat species. Moreover, these results showed that consistent responses to landscape composition at the assemblage level are harder to identify in fragmented Neotropical Forests. The responses of bats to habitat alteration tend to be highly species-specific. |
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