Castano, J. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2019

Responses of bats to landscape transformation in an Andean agricultural landscape

The current debate on the future of biodiversity gives rise to the need to integrate agricultural landscapes into conservation strategies. Bats are an important component of vertebrate diversity in many terrestrial landscapes where they provide invaluable and important ecosystem services to human societies such as insect pest control, pollination and seed dispersal. Here we study bat diversity and abundance in three landscapes representing a transformational gradient (continuous forests, forest fragments and crops) in an Andean agricultural scenario known as Colombias "Coffee Cultural Landscape". We captured 1146 bats from 32 species and 4 families. The bat diversity and abundance in this landscape were high, especially for frugivorous bats, but there were no differences among the three transformational landscapes. However, some species were captured differentially between landscapes, suggesting that these landscapes have characteristics that influence the relative abundance of bats. Additionally, body weight and sex affect the abundance of some species in forest fragments and crops.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Global patterns of seed germination after ingestion by mammals

Seed germination is the first step in seedling recruitment. Understanding what factors determine germination success allows some predictions of the effect of climate change or defaunation on the dynamics of plant communities. Mammals play an important role on seed germination through the ingestion of fruit and seeds. However, the populations of many mammal species have been reduced throughout the world, affecting in many ways the dynamics of plant communities. To understand how the loss of mammal populations might impact the dynamics of plant communities first requires us to collect and synthetize all the available evidence on the effects of mammals on seedling recruitment. Here, we used meta-analytical methods to describe the global patterns of the ingestion of seeds by mammals and their effect on seed germination. Our results showed a positive cumulative effect of mammals on seed germination. However, this effect was not the same for all the mammal orders; it varied depending on the plant family and the bioregion. Additionally, increased seed germination was related to rapid germination. These data highlight the important role that some mammals such as Primates and Elephants have on seed germination, and this poses many questions about the mechanisms behind seed germination patterns that will help to guide future research efforts.

ecology↗