TY - JOUR
T1 - Bats and their vital ecosystem services
T2 - a global review
AU - Ramírez-Fráncel, Leidy Azucena
AU - García-Herrera, Leidy Viviana
AU - Losada-Prado, Sergio
AU - Reinoso-Flórez, Gladys
AU - Sánchez-Hernández, Alfonso
AU - Estrada-Villegas, Sergio
AU - Lim, Burton K.
AU - Guevara, Giovany
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the staff of the Research Group in Zoology (GIZ), Universidad del Tolima (Ibagué, Colombia). L.A.R.-F. and L.V.G.-H. thank the Convocatoria No. 755, 2016 para la Formación de Capital Humano de Alto Nivel para el Departamento del Tolima, Colfuturo (Minciencias) and Departamento del Tolima for support (doctoral scholarships) during the development of this review. We thank the Editor-in-Chief and 3 reviewers for suggestions to improve the final version of our manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Bats play crucial ecosystem services as seed dispersers, pollinators, controllers of insects, and nutrient recyclers. However, there has not been a thorough global review evaluating these roles in bats across all biogeographical regions of the world. We reviewed the literature published during the last two decades and identified 283 relevant studies: 78 dealt with the control of potential insect pests by bats, 80 related to the suppression of other arthropods, 60 on the dispersal of native or endemic seeds, 11 dealt with the dispersal of seeds of introduced plants, 29 on the pollination of native or endemic plants, 1 study on pollination of introduced plants, and 24 on the use of guano as fertilizer. Our literature search showed that queries combining the terms “seed dispersal,” “insectivorous bats,” “nectarivorous bats,” “use of guano,” and “ecosystem services” returned 577 studies, but half were experimental in nature. We found that the evaluation of ecosystem services by bats has been mostly conducted in the Neotropical and Palearctic regions. To detect differences across relevant studies, and to explain trends in the study of ecosystem services provided by bats, we performed generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) fitted with a Poisson distribution to analyze potential differences among sampling methods. We identified 409 bat species that provide ecosystem services, 752 insect species consumed by bats and 549 plant species either dispersed or pollinated by bats. Our review summarizes the importance of conserving bat populations and the ecological services they provide, which is especially important during the current pandemic.
AB - Bats play crucial ecosystem services as seed dispersers, pollinators, controllers of insects, and nutrient recyclers. However, there has not been a thorough global review evaluating these roles in bats across all biogeographical regions of the world. We reviewed the literature published during the last two decades and identified 283 relevant studies: 78 dealt with the control of potential insect pests by bats, 80 related to the suppression of other arthropods, 60 on the dispersal of native or endemic seeds, 11 dealt with the dispersal of seeds of introduced plants, 29 on the pollination of native or endemic plants, 1 study on pollination of introduced plants, and 24 on the use of guano as fertilizer. Our literature search showed that queries combining the terms “seed dispersal,” “insectivorous bats,” “nectarivorous bats,” “use of guano,” and “ecosystem services” returned 577 studies, but half were experimental in nature. We found that the evaluation of ecosystem services by bats has been mostly conducted in the Neotropical and Palearctic regions. To detect differences across relevant studies, and to explain trends in the study of ecosystem services provided by bats, we performed generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) fitted with a Poisson distribution to analyze potential differences among sampling methods. We identified 409 bat species that provide ecosystem services, 752 insect species consumed by bats and 549 plant species either dispersed or pollinated by bats. Our review summarizes the importance of conserving bat populations and the ecological services they provide, which is especially important during the current pandemic.
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U2 - 10.1111/1749-4877.12552
DO - 10.1111/1749-4877.12552
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34003577
AN - SCOPUS:85107627788
SN - 1749-4877
VL - 17
SP - 2
EP - 23
JO - Integrative Zoology
JF - Integrative Zoology
IS - 1
ER -