Taxonomic and Functional Diversity and Composition of Bats in a Regenerating Neotropical Dry Forest

Abstract

This study evaluated the response of bat communities, from a taxonomic and functional perspective, to variation in the vegetation and landscape attributes produced by anthropogenic activities. We characterized the following: (1) the community of phyllostomid and mormoopid bats associated with the initial successional stages of a tropical dry forest, (2) the response of these communities to the variation in the attributes of the vegetation and the landscape, and (3) how the seasonality modulates such response. This allowed us to identify potential mechanisms underlying the response of bat communities to human disturbance. Our results showed that the species negatively affected by the anthropoghenic disturbance are those with greater body mass, larger nose-leaves, or a lower wing aspect ratio and relative wing loading, which perform low-speed flights and have high maneuverability and, potentially, a high directionality in their emissions. We also detected a greater sensitivity of bats to changes in the landscape attributes regarding the riparian than the dry forest, and that the effect of anthropic transformation on bats was intensified during the dry season. Then, the continued loss of the original vegetation can lead to a loss of certain groups of bat species in neotropical landscapes, reducing the resilience of the system.

Keywords

• bat community
• early-successional forest
• anthropogenic landscape
• landscape ecology
• functional diversity
• tropical dry forest