Bats as suppressors of agroforestry pests in beech forests ...

• Main Authors: Ancillotto, Leonardo, Rummo, Rosario, Agostinetto, Giulia, Tommasi, Nicola, Garonna, Antonio P., De Benedetta, Flavia, Bernardo, Umberto, Galimberti, Andrea, Russo, Danilo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Barbastella barbastellus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13470715; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13470715

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Forest ecosystems are fundamental to the conservation of global biodiversity and human wellbeing, hosting high numbers of species worldwide, and providing essential regulatory, provisioning, and cultural ecosystem services. The increasing impact of drivers of environmental changes such as climate change and biological invasions endangers forests, often acting synergically with forest pests, whose effects are exacerbated. Within this context, forest bats may represent key ecosystem service providers by consuming pests such as defoliating and fruitdamaging arthropods, yet their actual role has been so far neglected. Here we pursued the hypothesis that forest bats will be important suppressors of agroforestry pest insects. We analysed the diet of two forest spe­ cialists, Barbastella barbastellus and Plecotus auritus, occurring in syntopy in beech forests of Central Italy, by adopting molecular tools. The diet of the two bat species differed significantly: only ...