Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas
Insectivorous bats provide ecosystem services in agricultural and urban landscapes by consuming arthropods that are considered pests. Bat species inhabiting cities are expected to consume insects associated with urban areas, such as mosquitoes, flying termites, moths, and beetles. We captured insect...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530310/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1818730388935147520 |
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| author | Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar Igor D. Bueno-Rocha Guilherme Oliveira Eder S. Pires Santelmo Vasconcelos Gisele L. Nunes Marina R. Frizzas Pedro H. B. Togni |
| author_facet | Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar Igor D. Bueno-Rocha Guilherme Oliveira Eder S. Pires Santelmo Vasconcelos Gisele L. Nunes Marina R. Frizzas Pedro H. B. Togni |
| author_sort | Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Insectivorous bats provide ecosystem services in agricultural and urban landscapes by consuming arthropods that are considered pests. Bat species inhabiting cities are expected to consume insects associated with urban areas, such as mosquitoes, flying termites, moths, and beetles. We captured insectivorous bats in the Federal District of Brazil and used fecal DNA metabarcoding to investigate the arthropod consumed by five bat species living in colonies in city buildings, and ascertained whether their predation was related to ecosystem services. These insectivorous bat species were found to consume 83 morphospecies of arthropods and among these 41 were identified to species, most of which were agricultural pests. We propose that bats may roost in the city areas and forage in the nearby agricultural fields using their ability to fly over long distances. We also calculated the value of the pest suppression ecosystem service by the bats. By a conservative estimation, bats save US$ 94 per hectare of cornfields, accounting for an annual savings of US$ 390.6 million per harvest in Brazil. Our study confirms that, regardless of their roosting location, bats are essential for providing ecosystem services in the cities, with extensive impacts on crops and elsewhere, in addition to significant savings in the use of pesticides. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T23:01:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1d4b749a16db4feba3a7084b0d1d8a83 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T23:01:00Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-1d4b749a16db4feba3a7084b0d1d8a832022-12-21T21:29:24ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-011610Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areasLudmilla M. S. AguiarIgor D. Bueno-RochaGuilherme OliveiraEder S. PiresSantelmo VasconcelosGisele L. NunesMarina R. FrizzasPedro H. B. TogniInsectivorous bats provide ecosystem services in agricultural and urban landscapes by consuming arthropods that are considered pests. Bat species inhabiting cities are expected to consume insects associated with urban areas, such as mosquitoes, flying termites, moths, and beetles. We captured insectivorous bats in the Federal District of Brazil and used fecal DNA metabarcoding to investigate the arthropod consumed by five bat species living in colonies in city buildings, and ascertained whether their predation was related to ecosystem services. These insectivorous bat species were found to consume 83 morphospecies of arthropods and among these 41 were identified to species, most of which were agricultural pests. We propose that bats may roost in the city areas and forage in the nearby agricultural fields using their ability to fly over long distances. We also calculated the value of the pest suppression ecosystem service by the bats. By a conservative estimation, bats save US$ 94 per hectare of cornfields, accounting for an annual savings of US$ 390.6 million per harvest in Brazil. Our study confirms that, regardless of their roosting location, bats are essential for providing ecosystem services in the cities, with extensive impacts on crops and elsewhere, in addition to significant savings in the use of pesticides.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530310/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar Igor D. Bueno-Rocha Guilherme Oliveira Eder S. Pires Santelmo Vasconcelos Gisele L. Nunes Marina R. Frizzas Pedro H. B. Togni Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas PLoS ONE |
| title | Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas |
| title_full | Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas |
| title_fullStr | Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas |
| title_short | Going out for dinner—The consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas |
| title_sort | going out for dinner the consumption of agriculture pests by bats in urban areas |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530310/?tool=EBI |
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