Better together: integrating mist-nets and bioacoustics reveals large-scale native vegetation as a key predictor of bat community conservation in a fragmented landscape

Abstract

Habitat loss, fragmentation, and land conversion for human use are currently the main drivers of biodiversity loss in the Neotropics. Agropastoral and silvicultural activities are especially important, as they have expanded in the last decades due to the increasing demand for global food and wood production. This presents a challenge in developing management strategies that balance biodiversity conservation with productivity, which can only be achieved through a better understanding of biodiversity responses to landscape changes. In this study, we investigated how landscape changes affect the species richness, relative abundance, and species composition of a bat community in a fragmented landscape in southeastern Brazil, using an approach that integrates data from mist-nets and bioacoustics. Forest cover at intermediate and large scales was the best predictor of bat richness and relative abundance, as well as the relative abundance of frugivorous bats. For open and edge space aerial insectivorous bats, landscape variables did not have a strong explanatory power, suggesting that other variables may better predict their relative abundance. Our study highlights the importance of using multiple sampling methods to study Neotropical bats, as well as the importance of the multiscale approach to evaluate landscape effects on biological communities.