Dieta y estructura trófica de murciélagos frugívoros en tres escenarios de transformación de un paisaje rural (ecoregión eje cafetero, Risaralda - Colombia)

Abstract

The transformation of the landscape has resulted in the fragmentation and disappearance of natural habitats; negatively affecting the species. Although the contribution of the Colombian rural coffee landscape to the conservation of biodiversity has been recognized, the information that bases strategies, that ensure the persistence of species and the provision of ecosystem services in the long term is still insufficient. The objective of this work was to describe the diet and trophic structure of frugivorous bats in three scenarios: forests, fragments of forest and agroecosystems; which represent the transformation of the rural coffee landscape of Risaralda. Nine plots of 1-km radius were established (three for each type of scenario) distributed in three municipalities. Through ten fog networks that remained open from 6:00 p.m. until 06: 00 a.m., 987 Phyllostomid individuals were captured, represented by 18 frugivorous species, which make up their diet based on: 11 families; 15 genera and 38 botanical species (five reported as new consumption records for the Andean Region). The diversity of the diet of frugivorous bat assemblages was significantly greater in the fragmented scenario, with respect to the agricultural one, and especially to the forest; while what, the breadth of diet was greater in the agricultural scenario, with respect to the forest and the fragmented. The bats that presented the greatest use of resources in the coffee landscape of Risaralda were: Carollia brevicauda, Artibeus lituratus and Carollia perspicillata, which corroborates its importance as the most important seed dispersing agents for the region. The results of this study have important implications for the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of ecosystem services, since detailed information on the diet and trophic structure of frugivorous bats has been documented in three types of habitat, in the same landscape; information that can be used as a management tool in the processes of conservation and ecological restoration.