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Cabrera-Cruz SA, Aguilar López JL, Aguilar-Rodríguez PA, Oropeza-Sánchez MT, Muñoz Jiménez O, Villegas Patraca R. Changes in diversity and species composition in the assemblage of live and dead bats at wind farms in a highly diverse region. Environ Monit Assess 2023; 195:1480. [PMID: 37968519 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-023-12090-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/17/2023]
Abstract
Besides direct mortality, wind farms also affect aerial fauna by modifying their communities, reducing species diversity and richness through disturbance. During three consecutive years, we used mist nets and acoustic recorders, and conducted carcass searches, to characterize the assemblage of bat species and to estimate bat mortality at two nearby wind farms sited <5 km apart in a highly biodiverse region. We asked whether the diversity, richness and evenness of the assemblages varied yearly, predicting it would decrease through time. Richness and evenness did not change, but the diversity of species recorded acoustically, 96% being aerial insectivores, was significantly lower the third year. We estimate 4 - 15.7 fatalities/MW/year by wind farm, with 63% of species found as carcasses being aerial insectivores. We found >40% of dissimilarity in the species composition of bat assemblages between wind farms despite the short distance between them, with species turnover accounting for more than half of the dissimilarity every year. Similarly, species turnover accounted for >15% of the dissimilarity in the composition of the assemblage of live bats (captured and recorded acoustically) and the assemblage obtained through carcass searches. Our findings suggest that nearby wind farms impact bat communities differentially and aerial insectivores disproportionally. Long term, multi-method surveys are needed to characterize bat communities in highly diverse regions and to evaluate the post-construction effects that wind farms have on them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio A Cabrera-Cruz
- Unidad de Servicios Profesionales Altamente Especializados (USPAE), Instituto de Ecología A.C. (INECOL), Coatepec, Veracruz, 91520, México.
| | - José Luis Aguilar López
- Unidad de Servicios Profesionales Altamente Especializados (USPAE), Instituto de Ecología A.C. (INECOL), Coatepec, Veracruz, 91520, México
| | | | - Marco T Oropeza-Sánchez
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (IESS), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, 58190, México
| | - Oscar Muñoz Jiménez
- Unidad de Servicios Profesionales Altamente Especializados (USPAE), Instituto de Ecología A.C. (INECOL), Coatepec, Veracruz, 91520, México
| | - Rafael Villegas Patraca
- Unidad de Servicios Profesionales Altamente Especializados (USPAE), Instituto de Ecología A.C. (INECOL), Coatepec, Veracruz, 91520, México.
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Ospina-Garcés SM, León-Paniagua L, Aguilar-Rodríguez PA, MacSwiney G. MC. Natural history of the fishing bat Noctilio leporinus (Chiroptera: Noctilionidae) in the Gulf of Mexico. MAMMALIA 2022. [DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2022-0098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
We report feeding behaviour, dates of peak reproduction, and sexual size dimorphism of the fishing bat, Noctilio leporinus, in the Gulf of Mexico. For the first time we document the size of cheek pouches in N. leporinus and fish species consumed in the water bodies of southern Mexico and analyse differences in wing morphology and biomechanical flight descriptors between the sexes. We found sexual dimorphism in size for most of the external measurements but not in wing characters. This species can consume prey up to a third of its size. We confirmed the presence of N. leporinus in localities in Tabasco, Mexico 60 years after the first report.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra M. Ospina-Garcés
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales , Universidad Veracruzana , José María Morelos No. 44 y 46. Col. Centro, C.P. 91000 , Xalapa , Veracruz , Mexico
| | - Livia León-Paniagua
- Museo de Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera”, Facultad de Ciencias , Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Exterior Circuit S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510 , Ciudad de México , Mexico
| | - Pedro A. Aguilar-Rodríguez
- Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales , Universidad Veracruzana , Parque Ecológico “El Haya”, C.P. 91070 , Xalapa , Veracruz , Mexico
| | - M. Cristina MacSwiney G.
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales , Universidad Veracruzana , José María Morelos No. 44 y 46. Col. Centro, C.P. 91000 , Xalapa , Veracruz , Mexico
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Aguilar-Rodríguez PA, Méndez-Rodríguez A, Ospina-Garcés SM, MacSwiney G. MC, Yovel Y. Free-ranging Van Gelder’s bat Bauerus dubiaquercus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) preying on dung beetles in southern Mexico. MAMMALIA 2021. [DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2021-0060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
We report the first prey species consumed by the free-ranging Van Gelder’s bat Bauerus dubiaquercus. We trapped four pregnant individuals of this species carrying freshly captured dung beetles. We describe the wing morphology and flight descriptors (wing loading and wing aspect ratio) of the species, which presents wings more suitable for capturing insects by aerial hawking, although the evidence suggests that is able to capture dung beetles of nearly 10% of its body mass in flight close to the ground. The species could obtain their prey while foraging on uncluttered pasture near forest edges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pedro A. Aguilar-Rodríguez
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana , José María Morelos No. 44 y 46. Col. Centro, C.P. 91000 , Xalapa , Veracruz , Mexico
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences , Tel Aviv University , 6997801 Tel Aviv , Israel
| | - Aline Méndez-Rodríguez
- Departamento de Biología , Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa , Avenida San Rafael Atlixco no. 186, Col. Vicentina. Del. Iztapalapa, C.P. 09340 , Ciudad de México , Mexico
| | - Sandra M. Ospina-Garcés
- Museo de Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera”, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Exterior Circuit S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, 04510 , Ciudad de México , Mexico
| | - M. Cristina MacSwiney G.
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana , José María Morelos No. 44 y 46. Col. Centro, C.P. 91000 , Xalapa , Veracruz , Mexico
| | - Yossi Yovel
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences , Tel Aviv University , 6997801 Tel Aviv , Israel
- Sagol School of Neuroscience , Tel Aviv University , 6997801 Tel Aviv , Israel
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Díaz-Jiménez P, Croat TB, Cedeño-Fonseca M, Gómez-Domínguez H, O. Ortiz O, Aguilar-Rodríguez PA. Anthurium perezfarrerae (Araceae: sect. Andiphilum), a new species from Sierra de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico. REV MEX BIODIVERS 2021. [DOI: 10.22201/ib.20078706e.2021.92.3551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
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Saldaña-Vázquez RA, Ortega J, Guerrero JA, Aiza-Reynoso MI, MacSwiney G MC, Aguilar-Rodríguez PA, Ayala-Berdon J, Zamora-Gutierrez V. Ambient temperature drives sex ratio and presence of pregnant females of Anoura geoffroyi (Phyllostomidae) bats living in temperate forests. J Mammal 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyz186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Phenology in animals is strongly influenced by seasonality that promotes changes in abundance of food resources and temperature. These changes may impose energetic constraints to organisms in certain seasons during the year, especially on those animals facing high energetic demands, such as nectarivorous bats. Seasonality in temperate forests could, therefore, promote migration of female nectarivorous bat to find warmer sites, thus enhancing breeding success. To test this hypothesis, we compared the proportion of females and the proportion of pregnant females of the nectarivorous bat Anoura geoffroyi, between months, in six different populations across temperate forests of Mexico. Bats were captured over a complete season cycle either with sweep or mist nets at the entrance or near their roosting caves, and their age, sex, and reproductive condition were recorded. We found that over 50% of bats present in the cave roosts across different populations in temperate forests of the Trans-Mexican Neovolcanic Belt of Mexico during the warmer and wetter months (April–September) were females, both pregnant and nonpregnant. In contrast, fewer than 30% of bats present in the roosting caves sampled in the colder and drier months (October–March) were females. In addition, we found that the temperature that favors the proportion of females at the studied sites was greater than 8°C. We concluded that seasonality affects sex ratio and phenology of A. geoffroyi in Mexican temperate forests. Our findings suggest females’ migrations to lowland warmer sites to improve prenatal development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romeo A Saldaña-Vázquez
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, San Claudio, Edificio BIO 1, Ciudad Universitaria, Col. Jardines de San Manuel, Puebla, México
| | - Jorge Ortega
- Laboratorio de Bioconservación y Manejo, Posgrado en Ciencias Quimicobiológicas, Departamento de Zoología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, Col. Sto. Tomás, CDMX, México
| | - José Antonio Guerrero
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México
| | - M Isabel Aiza-Reynoso
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México
| | - M Cristina MacSwiney G
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales (CITRO), Universidad Veracruzana, José María Morelos y Pavón, Centro. Xalapa, México
| | - Pedro A Aguilar-Rodríguez
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales (CITRO), Universidad Veracruzana, José María Morelos y Pavón, Centro. Xalapa, México
| | - Jorge Ayala-Berdon
- CONACYT, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl, Tlaxcala, México
| | - Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez
- CONACYT - Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional (CIIDIR) Unidad Durango, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Durango, México
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Aguilar-Rodríguez PA, Krömer T, García-Franco JG, MacSwiney G MC. From dusk till dawn: nocturnal and diurnal pollination in the epiphyte Tillandsia heterophylla (Bromeliaceae). Plant Biol (Stuttg) 2016; 18:37-45. [PMID: 25683682 DOI: 10.1111/plb.12319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2014] [Accepted: 01/22/2015] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
In order to compare the effectiveness of diurnal and nocturnal pollinators, we studied the reproductive biology and pollinators of Tillandsia heterophylla E. Morren, an epiphytic tank bromeliad endemic to southeastern Mexico. Since anthesis in T. heterophylla is predominantly nocturnal but lasts until the following day, we hypothesised that this bromeliad would receive visits from both diurnal and nocturnal visitors, but that nocturnal visitors would be the most effective pollinators, since they arrive first to the receptive flower, and that bats would be the most frequent nocturnal visitors, given the characteristics of the nectar. Flowering of T. heterophylla began in May and lasted until July. The species is fully self-compatible, with an anthesis that lasts for ca. 15-16 h. Mean volume of nectar produced per flower was 82.21 μl, with a mean sugar concentration of 6.33%. The highest volume and concentration of nectar were found at 20:00 h, with a subsequent decline in both to almost zero over the following 12-h period. T. heterophylla has a generalist pollination system, since at least four different morphospecies of visitors pollinate its flowers: bats, moths, hummingbirds and bees. Most of the pollinating visits corresponded to bats and took place in the early evening, when stigma receptivity had already begun; making bats the probable pollinator on most occasions. However, diurnal pollinators may be important as a 'fail-safe' system by which to guarantee the pollination of T. heterophylla.
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Affiliation(s)
- P A Aguilar-Rodríguez
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México
| | - T Krömer
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México
| | - J G García-Franco
- Red de Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Xalapa, Veracruz, México
| | - M C MacSwiney G
- Centro de Investigaciones Tropicales, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México
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