caa a22 4500 60552744X CHVBK 20210128100808.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10531-015-1021-6 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10531-015-1021-6 Impacts of oil palm agriculture on phyllostomid bat assemblages [Elektronische Daten] [Anita Freudmann, Philipp Mollik, Marco Tschapka, Christian Schulze] Rising global demand for palm oil comes mainly at the expense of tropical forests, and palm plantations are increasing steadily in Latin America. Conversion of forest to oil palm agriculture accelerates biodiversity loss by dramatically altering availability and abundance of resources. Assessing the impact of these monocultures on highly diverse keystone groups such as bats is of particular ecological and economic importance. We compared phyllostomid bat assemblages in mature lowland forest interior, at forest margins and within oil palm plantations in southwestern Costa Rica. A total of 45mist-netting nights in the late dry season yielded 1235 individual captures from 31 species. Bat assemblages in oil palm plantations were clearly distinct from those at forest sites and exhibited lower species richness, similar to results reported for Southeast Asia. Assemblage structure within oil palm plantations was characterized by increased relative abundance of common frugivorous Stenodermatinae and the loss of rare species, mainly disturbance-sensitive animalivorous Phyllostominae. Although plantations may serve as flyways for highly mobile matrix-tolerant species, even small oil palm plantations seem to act as effective barriers for many others, particularly understory gleaning animalivores. By decreasing landscape permeability even for highly mobile animals such as bats, oil palm agriculture may consequently reduce population connectivity and foster faunal impoverishment, which in turn can diminish crucial ecosystem services provided by bats. The advancing expansion of these monocultures in Latin America calls for appropriate precautionary conservation measures to protect and preserve biodiversity in oil palm growing countries. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 Neotropical Chiroptera nationallicence Elaeis guineensis nationallicence Central America nationallicence Human-modified landscapes nationallicence Anthropogenic habitat disturbance nationallicence Dispersal barrier nationallicence Freudmann Anita Department of Botany & Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria aut Mollik Philipp Department of Botany & Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria aut Tschapka Marco Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany aut Schulze Christian Department of Botany & Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria aut Biodiversity and Conservation Springer Netherlands 24/14(2015-12-01), 3583-3599 0960-3115 24:14<3583 2015 24 10531 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-1021-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-1021-6 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Freudmann Anita Department of Botany & Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Mollik Philipp Department of Botany & Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Tschapka Marco Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Schulze Christian Department of Botany & Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Biodiversity and Conservation Springer Netherlands 24/14(2015-12-01), 3583-3599 0960-3115 24:14<3583 2015 24 10531