Abstract
The high levels of biodiversity in the Amazon are maintained mostly due to its composition as a natural mosaic of different habitats, including both unflooded and flooded forests, campinaranas, and savannahs. Here, we compared multiple dimensions of α- and β- bat biodiversity between four natural Amazonian habitats (savannah, campinarana, forest patches, and continuous forest). In addition, we explored the extent to which bat communities in the different habitats are nested within one another, and compared the community-level functional uniqueness and community-weighted mean traits between habitats. Our results show that taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic α-diversity of bats is higher in continuous forest than in any of the other habitat types. The continuous forest also harbours more unique species, and indeed, the bat community assemblages in the less-complex habitats, including forest patches, campinarana and savannahs, are taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic sub-sets of the assemblage found in the continuous forest. By examining β-diversity partitions and species composition, we are able to shed light on the mechanisms behind the variation in diversity between the four habitat types, which reflect a process of environmental sorting along a habitat gradient going from a more complex to a less complex habitat. We conclude that nesting patterns along the mosaic of habitats are determined by differences in complexity between habitats and that taxonomic and functional uniqueness contribute to overall regional bat diversity and functionality. Ongoing human-induced disturbances of these habitats could provoke an unprecedented loss of bat diversity and functionality with negative consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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27 August 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05018-2
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Acknowledgements
William Douglas Carvalho and Fábio Zanella Farneda are supported by a post-doctoral scholarship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES PNPD and PrInt—Finance Code 001, respectively). Two companies, Ecology and Environment do Brasil and the Group Isolux, funded our study. We thank our field assistants Domingos Ramos, Valdomiro, Tonivelton and Edilson Luis (Bocão), Eddeivid Reis and Mariana Chandaliê for help in the collection of field data. The fieldwork was authorized by the appropriate Brazilian authority, namely the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA; Collection licenses n° 144/2008 and nº 256/2009).
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WDC originally formulated the idea; WDC, KM, IJC, ACM, BSX and JDM conducted fieldwork; WDC and FZF performed statistical analyses and WDC and KM wrote the drafts of the main manuscript and the online resources. All authors contributed critically to the manuscript and gave final approval for publication.
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The original online version of this article was revised: The co-author name Renato R. Hiláro is corrected as Renato R. Hilário.
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Carvalho, W.D., Mustin, K., Farneda, F.Z. et al. Taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic bat diversity decrease from more to less complex natural habitats in the Amazon. Oecologia 197, 223–239 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05009-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05009-3