Relative contributions of ecological drift and selection on bat community structure in interior Atlantic Forest of Paraguay

A species-level trait dataset of bats in Europe and beyond

Knowledge of species' functional traits is essential for understanding biodiversity patterns, predicting the impacts of global environmental changes, and assessing the efficiency of conservation measures. Bats are major components of mammalian diversity and occupy a variety of ecological niches and geographic distributions. However, an extensive compilation of their functional traits and ecological attributes is still missing. Here we present EuroBaTrait 1.0, the most comprehensive and up-to-date trait dataset covering 47 European bat species. The dataset includes data on 118 traits including genetic composition, physiology, morphology, acoustic signature, climatic associations, foraging habitat, roost type, diet, spatial behaviour, life history, pathogens, phenology, and distribution. We compiled the bat trait data obtained from three main sources: (i) a systematic literature and dataset search, (ii) unpublished data from European bat experts, and (iii) observations from large-scale monitoring programs. EuroBaTrait is designed to provide an important data source for comparative and trait-based analyses at the species or community level. The dataset also exposes knowledge gaps in species, geographic and trait coverage, highlighting priorities for future data collection.

Drivers of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversities in dominant ground-dwelling arthropods of coastal heathlands

Although functional and phylogenetic diversities are increasingly used in ecology for a variety of purposes, their relationship remains unclear, and this relationship likely differs among taxa, yet most recent studies focused on plants. We hypothesize that communities may be diverse in functional traits due to presence of: many phylogenetic lineages, trait divergence within lineages, many species and random functional variation among species, weak filtering of traits in favorable environments, or strong trait divergence in unfavorable environments. We tested these predictions for taxa showing higher (ants), or lower (spiders, ground beetles) degrees of competition and niche construction, both of which might decouple functional traits from phylogenetic position or from the environment. Studying > 11,000 individuals and 216 species from coastal heathlands, we estimated functional as minimum spanning trees using traits related to the morphology, feeding habits and dispersal, respectively. Relationships between functional and phylogenetic diversities were overall positive and strong. In ants, this relationship disappeared after accounting for taxonomic diversities and environments, whereas in beetles and spiders taxonomic diversity is related to functional diversity only via increasing phylogenetic diversity. Environmental constraints reduced functional diversity in ants, but affected functional diversity only indirectly via phylogenetic diversity (ground beetles) and taxonomic and then phylogenetic diversity (spiders and ground beetles). Results are consistent with phylogenetic conservatism in traits in spiders and ground beetles. In ants, in contrast, traits appear more phylogenetically neutral with any new species potentially representing a new trait state, tentatively suggesting that competition or niche construction might decouple phylogenetics from trait diversity.

Dietary patterns of phyllostomid bats in interior Atlantic Forest of eastern Paraguay

We examined patterns of dietary overlap of phyllostomid bats in interior Atlantic Forest of Paraguay. In addition, we examined microgeographic, seasonal, and species-specific, differences in dietary patterns. We obtained 4,519 dietary records for bats from two sites in eastern Paraguay representing 26 different kinds of resources. The three most abundant resources made up 85% of all dietary records. No significant difference in diets of phyllostomid bats existed between sites. Overlap was high and significantly greater than random. Overlap at both sites was higher in winter than in summer. Consumption of dietary items was different between seasons and reflected changes in consumption primarily of the three most consumed items. Resource breadth was narrower in winter than summer. Sites, season, and species together accounted for 71% of the variation in dietary items. Unique effects, after controlling for variation shared with other factors, of species and season were significant, whereas that of site was not. While much dietary variation in interior Atlantic Forest falls along phylogenetic lines, such patterns are weak and resource utilization appears to be substantively influenced by generalist ecology of bats and seasonal nature of the environment in this system.