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Tuneu-Corral C, Puig-Montserrat X, Riba-Bertolín D, Russo D, Rebelo H, Cabeza M, López-Baucells A. Pest suppression by bats and management strategies to favour it: a global review. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2023; 98:1564-1582. [PMID: 37157976 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2022] [Revised: 04/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Fighting insect pests is a major challenge for agriculture worldwide, and biological control and integrated pest management constitute well-recognised, cost-effective ways to prevent and overcome this problem. Bats are important arthropod predators globally and, in recent decades, an increasing number of studies have focused on the role of bats as natural enemies of agricultural pests. This review assesses the state of knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by bats as pest consumers at a global level and provides recommendations that may favour the efficiency of pest predation by bats. Through a systematic review, we assess evidence for predation, the top-down effect of bats on crops and the economic value of ecosystem services these mammals provide, describing the different methodological approaches used in a total of 66 reviewed articles and 18 agroecosystem types. We also provide a list of detailed conservation measures and management recommendations found in the scientific literature that may favour the delivery of this important ecosystem service, including actions aimed at restoring bat populations in agroecosystems. The most frequent recommendations include increasing habitat heterogeneity, providing additional roosts, and implementing laws to protect bats and reduce agrochemical use. However, very little evidence is available on the direct consequences of these practices on bat insectivory in farmland. Additionally, through a second in-depth systematic review of scientific articles focused on bat diet and, as part of the ongoing European Cost Action project CA18107, we provide a complete list of 2308 documented interactions between bat species and their respective insect pest prey. These pertain to 81 bat species belonging to 36 different genera preying upon 760 insect pests from 14 orders in agroecosystems and other habitats such as forest or urban areas. The data set is publicly available and updatable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carme Tuneu-Corral
- BiBio, Biodiversity and Bioindicators Research Group, Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, Av. Francesc Macià 51, Granollers, Catalonia, 08402, Spain
- CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigaçaõ em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, 4485-661, Portugal
- Global Change and Conservation Lab, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Program, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Xavier Puig-Montserrat
- BiBio, Biodiversity and Bioindicators Research Group, Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, Av. Francesc Macià 51, Granollers, Catalonia, 08402, Spain
| | - Daniel Riba-Bertolín
- BiBio, Biodiversity and Bioindicators Research Group, Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, Av. Francesc Macià 51, Granollers, Catalonia, 08402, Spain
| | - Danilo Russo
- Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Evolution (AnEcoEvo), Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, via Università, 100, Portici, Naples, 80055, Italy
| | - Hugo Rebelo
- CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigaçaõ em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, 4485-661, Portugal
| | - Mar Cabeza
- Global Change and Conservation Lab, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Program, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Adrià López-Baucells
- BiBio, Biodiversity and Bioindicators Research Group, Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, Av. Francesc Macià 51, Granollers, Catalonia, 08402, Spain
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Vansynghel J, Ocampo-Ariza C, Maas B, Martin EA, Thomas E, Hanf-Dressler T, Schumacher NC, Ulloque-Samatelo C, Yovera FF, Tscharntke T, Steffan-Dewenter I. Quantifying services and disservices provided by insects and vertebrates in cacao agroforestry landscapes. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20221309. [PMID: 36100014 PMCID: PMC9470269 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals provide services such as pollination and pest control in cacao agroforestry systems, but also disservices. Yet, their combined contributions to crop yield and fruit loss are mostly unclear. In a full-factorial field experiment in northwestern Peru, we excluded flying insects, ants, birds and bats from cacao trees and assessed several productivity indicators. We quantified the contribution of each group to fruit set, fruit loss and marketable yield and evaluated how forest distance and canopy closure affected productivity. Fruit set dropped (from 1.7% to 0.3%) when flying insects were excluded and tripled at intermediate (40%) compared to high (greater than 80%) canopy cover in the non-exclusion treatment. Fruit set also dropped with bird and bat exclusion, potentially due to increased abundances of arthropods preying on pollinators or flower herbivores. Overall, cacao yields more than doubled when birds and bats had access to trees. Ants were generally associated with fruit loss, but also with yield increases in agroforests close to forest. We also evidenced disservices generated by squirrels, leading to significant fruit losses. Our findings show that several functional groups contribute to high cacao yield, while trade-offs between services and disservices need to be integrated in local and landscape-scale sustainable cacao agroforestry management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justine Vansynghel
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.,Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Lima office, Avenida La Molina 1895, La Molina 12, Lima, Peru
| | - Carolina Ocampo-Ariza
- Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Lima office, Avenida La Molina 1895, La Molina 12, Lima, Peru.,Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Bea Maas
- Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.,Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Emily A Martin
- Zoological Biodiversity, Institute of Geobotany, Leibniz University Hannover, Nienburger Straße 17, 30167 Hannover, Germany
| | - Evert Thomas
- Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Lima office, Avenida La Molina 1895, La Molina 12, Lima, Peru
| | - Tara Hanf-Dressler
- Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nils-Christian Schumacher
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Carlos Ulloque-Samatelo
- Universidad Nacional de Piura, Urb. Miraflores s/n, 295 Piura, Peru.,Universidad Continental Arequipa, Ciencias de la Empresa, Av. Los Incas s/n Urb. Lambramani, José Luis Bustamante y Rivero, Arequipa, Peru
| | - Fredy F Yovera
- Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Lima office, Avenida La Molina 1895, La Molina 12, Lima, Peru.,Norandino Ltds. Mz X Lote 3 y 4, Zona Industrial II etapa, Piura, Peru
| | - Teja Tscharntke
- Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
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