Responses of tropical fruit bats to monoculture and polyculture farming in oil palm smallholdings |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Forest Management, Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia;2. School of Environmental and Natural Resource Science, National University of Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia;3. School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania, Tasmania 7001, Australia;4. Biodiversity Unit, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia;1. Agroécologie, AgroSup Dijon, INRA, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-21000, Dijon, France;2. ITRA/CRAL, BP 1163, Lomé, Togo;3. Ecologie Systématique Evolution, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, 91400, Orsay, France;1. Disturbance Ecology, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Germany;2. Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, 3114, Bangladesh;3. Experimental Plant Ecology, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, Germany;4. Biogeography, BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Germany;1. College of Agriculture and Forestry, Puer University, Puer, Yunnan Province, 665000, China;2. Rural Development Research Center, Puer University, Yunnan Province, 665000, China;3. College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, 110866, China;1. Area of Terrestrial Ecology, Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Cordoba, Edificio C-4 “Celestino Mutis”, Campus de Rabanales, 14071 Córdoba, Spain;2. Department of Land Use and Improvement, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21, Prague 6 (Suchdol), Prague, Czech Republic;3. InBIO/CIBIO-Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Predictive Ecology Group, Campus Agrário de Vairão, R. Padre Armando Quintas, N° 7, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal;1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil;2. Núcleo Regional de Ofiologia da Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil;3. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil |
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| Abstract: | The oil palm industry is one of the main economic drivers in Southeast Asia. The industry has caused tropical deforestation on a massive scale in producing countries, and this forest conversion to oil palm agriculture has decimated the habitat of numerous native species. Monoculture and polyculture practices are two distinctive oil palm production systems. We hypothesize that polyculture farming hosts a greater diversity of species than monoculture farming. Habitat complexity in smallholdings is influenced by multiple farming practices (i.e. polyculture and monoculture). However, little is known about the effects of such farming practices in smallholdings on mammalian biodiversity, and particularly frugivorous bats. Our study aimed to find the best farming practice to reconcile oil palm production with biodiversity conservation. Mist-nets were used to trap frugivorous bats at 120 smallholdings in Peninsular Malaysia. We compared species richness and the abundance of frugivorous bats between monoculture and polyculture smallholdings. We investigated their relationships with vegetation structure characteristics. Our results revealed that species richness and abundance of frugivorous bats were significantly greater in polyculture smallholdings than monoculture smallholdings. We also found that 28.21% of the variation in species richness was explained by in situ habitat characteristics, including the number of dead standing oil palms and immature oil palms, non-grass cover, height of non-grass cover, and farming practices. The in situ habitat quality was closely associated with oil palm farming management. Commercial growers should implement polyculture rather than monoculture farming because polyculture farming has positive effects on the abundance and species richness of bats in oil palm production landscapes. |
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| Keywords: | Agriculture Frugivorous bats Biodiversity Conservation Oil palm Smallholdings |
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