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67 results for “Bat ecology”
Data from: Echolocation and roosting ecology determine sensitivity of forest-dependent bats to coffee agriculture
Species differ in vulnerability to anthropogenic landuse changes. Knowledge of the mechanisms driving differential sensitivity can inform conservation strategies but is generally lacking for species-rich taxa in the tropics. The diverse bat fauna of Southeast Asia is threatened by rapid loss of forest and expanding agricultural activities, but the associations between species, traits, vulnerability to agriculture and the underlying drivers have yet to be elucidated. We studied the responses of speciose insectivorous bat assemblages to robusta coffee cultivation in Sumatra, Indonesia. We compared abundance, species richness and assemblage structures of bats between forests and coffee farms based on trapping data and evaluated the influence of vegetation complexity on assemblage composition and species-level reactions. Bat abundance and species richness were significantly lower in coffee farms than in forests. Bat assemblage structure differed between landuses, and the overall variation can be largely explained by vegetation simplification. Species sensitive to coffee agriculture were associated with more complex vegetation structure, whereas tolerant species were associated with simpler vegetation structure. Sensitive and tolerant species differed in the type, frequency, and bandwidth of echolocation calls and roost use. Species sensitive to coffee use broadband and high-pitched frequency-modulated calls, which are efficient at detecting insects in complex vegetation, and roost in plant structures that may be lost as vegetation is simplified. In contrast, tolerant species used lower-pitched constant frequency calls and roost in caves. We advocate for greater use of trait analyses in studies seeking to clarify the influence of agriculture on diverse tropical bat faunas.
Data from: Acoustic identification of Mexican bats based on taxonomic and ecological constraints on call design
Monitoring global biodiversity is critical for understanding responses to anthropogenic change, but biodiversity monitoring is often biased away from tropical, megadiverse areas that are experiencing more rapid environmental change. Acoustic surveys are increasingly used to monitor biodiversity change, especially for bats as they are important indicator species and most use sound to detect, localise and classify objects. However, using bat acoustic surveys for monitoring poses several challenges, particularly in megadiverse regions. Many species lack reference recordings, some species have high call similarity or differ in call detectability, and quantitative classification tools, such as machine learning algorithms, have rarely been applied to data from these areas. Here, we collate a reference call library for bat species that occur in a megadiverse country, Mexico. We use 4685 search-phase calls from 1378 individual sequences of 59 bat species to create automatic species identification tools generated by machine learning algorithms (Random Forest). We evaluate the improvement in species-level classification rates gained by using hierarchical classifications, reflecting either taxonomic or ecological constraints (guilds) on call design, and examine how classification rate accuracy changes at different hierarchical levels (family, genus and guild). Species-level classification of calls had a mean accuracy of 66%, and the use of hierarchies improved mean species-level classification accuracy by up to 6% (species within families 72%, species within genera 71·2% and species within guilds 69·1%). Classification accuracy to family, genus and guild-level was 91·7%, 77·8% and 82·5%, respectively. The bioacoustic identification tools we have developed are accurate for rapid biodiversity assessments in a megadiverse region and can also be used effectively to classify species at broader taxonomic or ecological levels. This flexibility increases their usefulness when there are incomplete species reference recordings and also offers the opportunity to characterise and track changes in bat community structure. Our results show that bat bioacoustic surveys in megadiverse countries have more potential than previously thought to monitor biodiversity changes and can be used to direct further developments of bioacoustic monitoring programs in Mexico.
Data from: Trait-based functional dietary analysis provides a better insight into the foraging ecology of bats
1. The degree of trophic specialization determines the ability of predators to cope with changing foraging conditions, but in predators that prey on hundreds of species it is challenging to assess, especially when prey identity varies among predator individuals and across space and time. 2. Here, we test the hypothesis that a bat species foraging on flying insects like moths will show ample flexibility in trophic niche, and this irrespective of phylogenetic relationships among moths, so as to cope with a high diversity of prey types that vary across seasons. We predict that individual bats will show functional dietary differences consistent with energetic requirements and hunting skills. 3. We used DNA metabarcoding to determine the diet of 126 Mediterranean horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus euryale) from two different sites during three seasons. Simultaneously, we measured moth availability and characterized the traits of 290 moth taxa. Next, we explored the relationship between phylogeny and traits of all consumed and available moth taxa. Finally, we assessed the relationship between individual traits of bats and traits related to prey profitability, for which we used the RLQ and fourth-corner statistical techniques. 4. Seasonality was the main factor explaining the functional dietary variation in adult bats, with moths consumed irrespective of their phylogenetic relationships. While adults consumed moths with a broad range in wing loading, body mass and echolocation detection ability, juveniles consumed slower, smaller and lighter moths, which suggests that young individuals may undergo some fitness gain and/or psychomotor learning process during which they would acquire more effective foraging skills. 5. Our approach revealed a degree of functional flexibility in the trophic niche previously unknown for an insectivorous bat. R. euryale consumed a wide variety of moth taxa differing in profitability throughout seasons and between ontogenetic stages. We showed the validity of trait-based approaches to gain new insights in the trophic specialization of predators consuming hundreds of species of prey.
Data from: Ecological outsourcing: a pitcher plant benefits from transferring pre-digestion of prey to a bat mutualist
Mutualisms are interspecific interactions where each of the species involved gains net benefits from the other(s). The exchange of resources and/or services between mutualistic partners often involves tasks that species originally accomplished themselves but which have been taken over by or transferred to the more efficient partner during the evolution of the mutualism. Such 'ecological outsourcing' can be seen, for example, in several carnivorous plants that have transferred prey capture and digestion to animal partners. However, the outcome of this transfer and its fitness relevance has rarely been quantified. Using a digestive mutualism between a carnivorous pitcher plant (Nepenthes hemsleyana) and a bat (Kerivoula hardwickii) as a model, we tested the hypothesis that ecological outsourcing is a profitable strategy for the outsourcing partner. To evaluate the value of this mutualism, we conducted a series of field and glasshouse experiments. We measured the benefits of ecological outsourcing by comparing survival, growth, photosynthesis and nutrient content of N. hemsleyana plants fed with bat faeces to those fed with arthropods. To investigate the costs of such outsourcing processes, we repeated the experiment with the closest relative (Nepenthes rafflesiana) that is not adapted to digest bat faeces. We found that N. hemsleyana plants fed with faeces had increased survival, growth and photosynthesis compared to plants fed with arthropods only. On average, plants covered 95% of their nitrogen demand from faeces under strong nutrient deprivation. Despite N. rafflesiana's higher arthropod capture rate, faeces covered a large part of this species' nutrient demand as well, suggesting low costs for outsourcing. Synthesis. Outsourcing prey capture and digestion to the mutualism partner seems to be a beneficial strategy for N. hemsleyana. It may explain the evolutionary trend of several carnivorous plants to lose their carnivorous traits while increasing their attractiveness to mutualistic partners. On a much broader scale, we propose that ecological outsourcing could be one of the major drivers for the evolution and maintenance of mutualisms.
Data from: Resource availability and roosting ecology shape reproductive phenology of rain forest insectivorous bats
Bats in temperate and subtropical regions typically synchronize birth of a single young with peaks in resource availability driven by local climate patterns. In tropical rain forest, insects are available throughout the year, potentially allowing departures from seasonal monoestry. However, reproductive energy budgets may be constrained by the cost of commuting to foraging grounds from distant roosts. To test these hypotheses, we simultaneously tracked female reproductive activity of 11 insectivorous bat species, insect biomass, and local weather variables for 20 months in a Malaysian rain forest. Five species roost in forest structures and hence have low commuting costs, whereas six species depend on caves, which are limited in the landscape, and are presumed to incur higher commuting costs to foraging sites. Monthly insect biomass was positively correlated with monthly rainfall, and there was a significant relationship between insect biomass and lactation in cave-roosting but not forest-roosting species. Cave-roosting species were seasonally monoestrus, with parturition confined to a two-month period, whereas in forest-roosting species, pregnancy and lactation were recorded throughout the year. Our results suggest that the energetic costs of commuting from roosts to foraging grounds shape annual reproductive patterns in tropical rain forest insectivorous bats. Ongoing changes in forest landscapes are likely to increase these costs for cave-roosting bats, further restricting reproductive opportunities. Climate change is projected to influence the timing of rainfall events in many tropical habitats, which may disrupt relationships between rainfall, insect biomass, and bat reproductive timing, further compromising reproductive success.
Data from: From resource to female defence: the impact of roosting ecology on a bat's mating strategy
With their extraordinary species richness and diversity in ecological traits and social systems, bats are a promising taxon for testing socio-ecological hypotheses in order to get new insights into the evolution of animal social systems. Regarding its roosting habits, proboscis bats form an extreme by occupying sites which are usually completely exposed to daylight (e.g. tree trunks, vines or rocks). This is accompanied by morphological and behavioural adaptations to remain cryptic in exposed day roosts. With long-term behavioural observations and genetic parentage analyses of individually marked proboscis bats, we assessed its social dispersion and male mating strategy during day and night. Our results reveal nocturnal male territoriality—a strategy which most closely resembles a resource-defence polygyny that is frequent also in other tropical bats. Its contrasting clumped social dispersion during the day is likely to be the result of strong selection for crypsis in exposed roosts and is accompanied by direct female defence in addition to male territoriality. To the best of our knowledge, such contrasting male mating strategies within a single day–night cycle have not been described in a vertebrate species so far and illustrate a possible evolutionary trajectory from resource-defence to female-defence strategy by small ecologically driven evolutionary steps.
Ecological conditions predict the intensity of Hendra virus excretion over space and time from bat reservoir hosts
<p>The ecological conditions experienced by wildlife reservoirs affect infection dynamics and thus the distribution of pathogen excreted into the environment, which have been hypothesized to shape risks of zoonotic spillover. However, few systems have data on both long-term ecological conditions and pathogen excretion to advance mechanistic understanding and test environmental drivers of spillover risk. We here analyze three years of Hendra virus data from nine Australian flying fox roosts with covariates derived from long-term studies of bat ecology. We show that the magnitude of winter pulses of viral excretion, previously considered idiosyncratic, are most pronounced after recent food shortages and in bat populations displaced to novel habitats. We further show that cumulative pathogen excretion over time is shaped by bat ecology and positively predicts spillover frequency. Our work emphasizes the role of reservoir host ecology in shaping pathogen excretion and provides a new approach to estimate spillover risk.</p>
Ecological conditions predict the intensity of Hendra virus excretion over space and time from bat reservoir hosts
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Data from: Latitudinal gradients in the ecology of New World bats
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Data from: Ecological outsourcing: a pitcher plant benefits from transferring pre-digestion of prey to a bat mutualist
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Data from: The foraging ecology of the Mountain long-eared bat Plecotus macrobullaris revealed with DNA mini-barcodes
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Data from: Acoustic identification of Mexican bats based on taxonomic and ecological constraints on call design
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Data from: From resource to female defence: the impact of roosting ecology on a bat's mating strategy
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Data from: Resource availability and roosting ecology shape reproductive phenology of rain forest insectivorous bats
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Data from: Trait-based functional dietary analysis provides a better insight into the foraging ecology of bats
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Data from: Echolocation and roosting ecology determine sensitivity of forest-dependent bats to coffee agriculture
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Ecological and evolutionary drivers of hemoplasma infection and genotype sharing in a Neotropical bat community
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Data from: A multiple peak adaptive landscape based on feeding strategies and roosting ecology shaped the evolution of cranial covariance structure and morphological differentiation in phyllostomid bats
We explored the evolution of morphological integration in the most noteworthy example of adaptive radiation in mammals, the New World leaf-nosed bats, using a massive dataset and by combining phylogenetic comparative methods and quantitative genetic approaches. We demonstrated that the phenotypic covariance structure remained conserved on a broader phylogenetic scale but also showed a substantial divergence between inter-clade comparisons. Most of the phylogenetic structure in the integration space can be explained by splits at the beginning of the diversification of major clades. Our results provide evidence for a multiple peak adaptive landscape in the evolution of cranial covariance structure and morphological differentiation, based upon diet and roosting ecology. In this scenario, the successful radiation of phyllostomid bats was triggered by the diversification of dietary and roosting strategies, and the invasion of these new adaptive zones lead to changes in phenotypic covariance structure and average morphology. Our results suggest that intense natural selection preceded the invasion of these new adaptive zones and played a fundamental role in shaping cranial covariance structure and morphological differentiation in this hyper-diverse clade of mammals. Finally, our study demonstrates the power of combining comparative methods and quantitative genetic approaches when investigating the evolution of complex morphologies.
Data from: Gaining ecological insight on dietary allocation among horseshoe bats through molecular primer combination
Knowledge on the trophic interactions among predators and their prey is important in order to understand ecology and behaviour of animals. Traditionally studies on the diet composition of insectivorous bats have been based on the morphological identification of prey remains, but the accuracy of the results has been hampered due to methodological limitations. Lately, the DNA metabarcoding and High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) techniques have changed the scene since they allows prey identification to the species level, ultimately giving more precision to the results. Nevertheless, the use of one single primer set to amplify faecal DNA produces biases in the assessed dietary composition. Three horseshoe bats overlap extensively in their distribution range in Europe: Rhinolophus euryale, R. hipposideros and R. ferrumequinum. In order to achieve the deepest insight on their prey list we combined two different primers. Results showed that the used primers were complementary at the order and species levels, only 22 out of 135 prey species being amplified by both. The most frequent prey of R. hipposideros belonged to Diptera and Lepidoptera, to Lepidoptera in R. euryale, and Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera in R. ferrumequinum. The three bats show significant resource partitioning, since their trophic niche overlap is not higher than 34%.
Figure 1 in Ecological niche differentiation among Aztec fruit-eating bat subspecies (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in Mesoamerica
Figure 1. Ocurrence records for the three subspecies of Artibeus aztecus: Artibeus aztecus aztecus (yellow),Artibeus aztecus minor (blue) and Artibeus aztecus major (light red).
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.