Search

Comparable data is essential to understand biodiversity patterns. While assemblage or community inventorying requires comprehensive sampling, monitoring focuses on as few components as possible to detect changes. Quantifying species, their evolutionary history, and the way they interact requires studying changes in taxonomic (TD), phylogenetic (PD) and functional diversity (FD). Here we propose a method for the optimization of sampling protocols for inventorying and monitoring assemblages or communities across these three diversity dimensions taking sampling costs into account. We used Iberian spiders and Amazonian bats as two case-studies. The optimal combination of methods for inventorying and monitoring required optimizing the accumulation curve of α-diversity and minimizing the difference between sampled and estimated β-diversity (bias), respectively. For Iberian spiders, the optimal combination for TD, PD and FD allowed sampling at least 50% of estimated diversity with 24 person-hours of fieldwork. The optimal combination of six person-hours allowed reaching a bias below 8% for all dimensions. For Amazonian bats, surveying all the 12 sites with mist-nets and 0 or 1 acoustic recorders was the optimal combination for almost all diversity types, resulting in >89% of the diversity and <10% bias with roughly a third of the cost. Only for phylogenetic α-diversity, the best solution was less clear and involved surveying both with mist nets and acoustic recorders. The widespread use of optimized and standardized sampling protocols and regular repetition in time will radically improve global inventory and monitoring of biodiversity. We strongly advocate for the global adoption of sampling protocols for both inventory and monitoring of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insect-eating bats play a crucial role in agriculture and public health by suppressing populations of agricultural pests and disease vectors. These ecosystem services promoted by insect-eating bats are essential in a world that seeks sustainability in agricultural production and the management of urban areas. Despite Brazil's status as one of the largest agricultural producers globally, research using insect-eating bats for pest control is lacking. This review underscores the importance of filling this knowledge gap and provides guidelines for future research. Bats exhibit diverse feeding habits and consume significant quantities of insects, including agricultural pests. While studies in the USA and Europe have highlighted insect-eating bats' role in reducing agricultural losses, research in Brazil is limited. Challenges include the need for more advanced diet analysis techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, and understanding bat habitat use in agricultural and urban landscapes. Research on natural and artificial roosts' effectiveness and population dynamics is also essential. Integrating bat conservation into agricultural sustainability requires investment in technological methods, valuation of ecosystem services, population monitoring, habitat use studies and environmental education. Financial incentives and collaboration between sectors are crucial for advancing research and implementing bat-friendly practices in agriculture, ultimately enhancing biodiversity conservation and production sustainability in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands are biodiversity hotspots that host unique assemblages. However, a substantial proportion of island species are threatened and their long‐term survival is uncertain. Identifying and preserving vulnerable species has become a priority, but it is also essential to combine this information with other facets of biodiversity like functional diversity, to understand how future extinctions might affect ecosystem stability and functioning. Focusing on mammals, we (i) assessed how much functional space would be lost if threatened species go extinct, (ii) determined the minimum number of extinctions that would cause a significant functional loss, (iii) identified the characteristics (e.g., biotic, climatic, geographic, or orographic) of the islands most vulnerable to future changes in the functional space, and (iv) quantified how much of that potential functional loss would be offset by introduced species. Using trait information for 1474 mammal species occurring in 318 islands worldwide, we built trait probability density functions to quantify changes in functional richness and functional redundancy in each island if the mammals categorized by IUCN as threatened disappeared. We found that the extinction of threatened mammals would reduce the functional space in 63% of the assessed islands, although these extinctions in general would cause a reduction of less than 15% of their overall functional space. Also, on most islands, the extinction of just a few species would be sufficient to cause a significant loss of functional diversity. The potential functional loss would be higher on small, isolated, and/or species‐rich islands, and, in general, the functional space lost would not be offset by introduced species. Our results show that the preservation of native species and their ecological roles remains crucial for maintaining the current functioning of island ecosystems. Therefore, conservation measures considering functional diversity are imperative to safeguard the unique functional roles of threatened mammal species on islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited space on islands usually cannot sustain stable populations of large predators. However, jaguars, the largest cat species in the Americas, unexpectedly occur in the Estação Ecológica Maracá-Jipioca reserve, a system of continental Amazonian islands in the Atlantic Ocean. We investigated jaguar population structure, density, and activity patterns. We placed 25 camera-trap stations across 149.19 km2 and used spatially explicit capture–recapture to estimate density, and Rayleigh's test to assess activity patterns. We identified 21 individuals (12 females, six males, and three cubs) and estimated an adult density of 6.7 individuals per 100 km2, which equals a population of approximately 43 jaguars. The population is composed mostly of females (66%) in relation to males (33%). Male and female activity patterns overlapped and showed more activity during daytime. The high jaguar density and the presence of females with cubs indicate that these islands are likely natural refugia for jaguars, reinforcing the importance of this protected area for jaguar conservation and possibly challenging the paradigm that large-mammal populations are not feasible in restricted islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon region is made up of a mosaic of important habitats scattered throughout the rainforests, which differ in vegetation structure, basal area, primary productivity, biomass and production of flowers and fruits. Consequently, species richness and abundance also vary between these habitat types, in part explaining the high levels of richness found in the Amazon region. Here, we sampled bats using mist nets in three Amazonian habitats to explore variation in richness, abundance and community composition between habitats and seasons, and test for variation in the number and composition of bats captured in different mist net shelves. Overall abundance was highest in Amazonian savannahs, which is probably due to these habitats being more complex at the landscape scale — being composed of areas of savannah interspersed with forest fragments, gallery forests and palm stands. Abundance was also higher in the rainy season in savannahs and terra firme forest, and in the dry season in campinarana. In all habitats, bats were most frequently captured between 0.7 and 2.4 m from the ground. These results have important implications for our understanding of the ecology of, and habitat use by bats in the Amazon, particularly in the less well-studied habitat types of Amazonian savannah and campinarana. In addition, knowledge of the distribution of bat captures between mist net shelves serves to highlight that nets need not be set so close to the ground to maintain sampling efficiency, which is important as it may help to reduce opportunistic predation events of individuals caught in the lowest mist net shelf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon region is made up of a mosaic of important habitats scattered throughout the rainforests, which differ in vegetation structure, basal area, primary productivity, biomass and production of flowers and fruits. Consequently, species richness and abundance also vary between these habitat types, in part explaining the high levels of richness found in the Amazon region. Here, we sampled bats using mist nets in three Amazonian habitats to explore variation in richness, abundance and community composition between habitats and seasons, and test for variation in the number and composition of bats captured in different mist net shelves. Overall abundance was highest in Amazonian savannahs, which is probably due to these habitats being more complex at the landscape scale — being composed of areas of savannah interspersed with forest fragments, gallery forests and palm stands. Abundance was also higher in the rainy season in savannahs and terra firme forest, and in the dry season in campinarana. In all habitats, bats were most frequently captured between 0.7 and 2.4 m from the ground. These results have important implications for our understanding of the ecology of, and habitat use by bats in the Amazon, particularly in the less well-studied habitat types of Amazonian savannah and campinarana. In addition, knowledge of the distribution of bat captures between mist net shelves serves to highlight that nets need not be set so close to the ground to maintain sampling efficiency, which is important as it may help to reduce opportunistic predation events of individuals caught in the lowest mist net shelf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]