skip to main content


Title: DarkCideS 1.0, a global database for bats in karsts and caves
Abstract Understanding biodiversity patterns as well as drivers of population declines, and range losses provides crucial baselines for monitoring and conservation. However, the information needed to evaluate such trends remains unstandardised and sparsely available for many taxonomic groups and habitats, including the cave-dwelling bats and cave ecosystems. We developed the DarkCideS 1.0 ( https://darkcides.org/ ), a global database of bat caves and species synthesised from publicly available information and datasets. The DarkCideS 1.0 is by far the largest database for cave-dwelling bats, which contains information for geographical location, ecological status, species traits, and parasites and hyperparasites for 679 bat species are known to occur in caves or use caves in part of their life histories. The database currently contains 6746 georeferenced occurrences for 402 cave-dwelling bat species from 2002 cave sites in 46 countries and 12 terrestrial biomes. The database has been developed to be collaborative and open-access, allowing continuous data-sharing among the community of bat researchers and conservation biologists to advance bat research and comparative monitoring and prioritisation for conservation.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2127290
NSF-PAR ID:
10323732
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Scientific Data
Volume:
9
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2052-4463
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract

    Bats are important pollinators, but they are difficult to study since they are volant and nocturnal. Thus, long-term studies of nectarivorous bats are scarce, despite their potential to help assess trends in bat populations and their pollination services. We used capture rates of nectarivorous bats at chiropterophilous flowers in order to examine temporal trends in bat visitation in an area that is undergoing extensive land use change. We mist-netted at five bat-pollinated plant taxa (Durio zibethinus,Musa acuminata,Oroxylum indicum,Parkia speciosa, andSonneratiaspp.) in southern Thailand over six years between 2011 and 2021. We found that the most common bat species,Eonycteris spelaea, was the main visitor at all five plant taxa and had consistent visitation rates across all study years. In contrast, two other important pollinators,Macroglossus minimusandM. sobrinus, showed 80% declines in the number of individuals netted at mangrove apple (Sonneratiaspp.) and banana (Musa acuminata) flowers, respectively. These findings suggest thatE. spelaea(a large, cave-roosting species with a broad diet) is more tolerant of anthropogenic change than areMacroglossusbats (small, foliage-roosting species with specialized diets), which may in turn affect the reproductive success of plants pollinated by these species. Our study demonstrates how decade-long monitoring can reveal species-specific temporal patterns in pollinator visitation, emphasizing the need for tailored conservation plans. While the conservation status of most nectarivorous bats in the area is Least Concern, our results indicate that population studies in Southeast Asia are urgently needed for updated bat species conservation assessments.

     
    more » « less
  2. The Crystal-Wonder Cave System developed in the Western Escarpment of the southern Cumberland Plateau in the Interior Low Plateau karst region of south-central Tennessee, USA is a global hotspot of cave-limited biodiversity. We combined historical literature, museum accessions, and database occurrences with new observations from bio-inventory efforts conducted between 2005 and 2022 to compile an updated list of troglobiotic and stygobiotic biodiversity for the Crystal-Wonder Cave System. The list of cave-limited fauna includes 31 species (23 troglobionts and 8 stygobionts) with 28 and 18 species documented from the Crystal and Wonder caves, respectively, which represents five phyla, ten classes, nineteen orders, and twenty-six families (six arachnids, three springtails, two diplurans, three millipedes, six insects, three terrestrial snails, one flatworm, five crustaceans, and two vertebrates, respectively). The Crystal-Wonder Cave System is the type locality for six species—Anillinus longiceps, Pseudanophthalmus humeralis, P. intermedius, Ptomaphagus hatchi, Tolus appalachius, and Chitrella archeri. The carabid beetle Anillinus longiceps is endemic to the Crystal-Wonder Cave System. Sixteen species are of conservation concern, including twelve taxa with NatureServe conservation ranks of G1–G3. The exceptional diversity of the Crystal-Wonder Cave System has been associated with several factors, including a high dispersal potential of cave fauna associated with expansive karst exposures along the Western Escarpment of the southern Cumberland Plateau, a high surface productivity, and a favorable climate throughout the Pleistocene. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract

    Bat activity and species richness patterns are often used to assess bat population trends. Understanding how environmental conditions affect bat activity is thus important for bat conservation, but understudied across much of Africa. To address this information gap, we examined the effects of environmental factors (i.e. lunar phase and ambient temperature) on bat activity and species richness in the northern Namib Desert, Namibia. From May 2016 to March 2017, we deployed long‐term acoustic detectors at three locations of varying altitudes to record bat activity and captured bats to confirm species identities once per month. In total, we recorded 5865 passes from six bat families, with Vespertilionidae and Molossidae occurring at all sites. Lunar phase did not significantly affect activity on full moon versus new moon nights. Bat activity generally peaked at all sites in the early evenings independent of lunar phase, suggesting that foraging just after sunset may be adaptive. Ambient temperature had a negative effect on bat activity at all sites and bats were not active when temperatures were >35°C or ≤11°C, but bat activity peaked during the summer months. Despite differences in temperatures across sites, community composition was not related to altitude. Long‐term monitoring of desert bat activity and species richness is important not only for addressing large knowledge gaps about the population trends and behaviours of these Namibian species and about bats in arid landscapes more generally, but also for informing local bat conservation efforts across a range of environmental conditions.

     
    more » « less
  4. The Fern Cave System, developed in the western escarpment of the Southern Cumberland Plateau of the Interior Low Plateau karst region in Northeastern Alabama, USA, is a global hotspot of cave-limited biodiversity as well as home to the largest winter hibernaculum for the federally endangered Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens). We combined the existing literature, museum accessions, and database occurrences with new observations from bioinventory efforts conducted in 2018–2022 to generate an updated list of troglobiotic and stygobiotic species for the Fern Cave System. Our list of cave-limited fauna totals twenty-seven species, including nineteen troglobionts and eight stygobionts. Two pseudoscorpions are endemic to the Fern Cave System: Tyrannochthonius torodei and Alabamocreagris mortis. The exceptional diversity at Fern Cave is likely associated with several factors, such as the high dispersal potential of cave fauna associated with expansive karst exposures along the Southern Cumberland Plateau, high surface productivity, organic input from a large bat colony, favorable climate throughout the Pleistocene, and location within a larger regional hotspot of subterranean biodiversity. Nine species are of conservation concern, including the recently discovered Alabama cave shrimp Palaemonias alabamae, because of their small range sizes, few occurrences, and several potential threats. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    Species differ in vulnerability to anthropogenic land use changes. Knowledge of the mechanisms driving differential sensitivity can inform conservation strategies but is generally lacking for species‐rich taxa in the tropics. The diverse bat fauna of Southeast Asia is threatened by rapid loss of forest and expanding agricultural activities, but the associations between species, traits, vulnerability to agriculture, and the underlying drivers have yet to be elucidated. We studied the responses of speciose insectivorous bat assemblages to robusta coffee cultivation in Sumatra, Indonesia. We compared abundance, species richness, and assemblage structures of bats between forests and coffee farms based on trapping data and evaluated the influence of vegetation complexity on assemblage composition and species‐level reactions. Bat abundance and species richness were significantly lower in coffee farms than in forests. Bat assemblage structure differed between land uses, and the overall variation can be largely explained by vegetation simplification. Species sensitive to coffee agriculture were associated with more complex vegetation structure, whereas tolerant species were associated with simpler vegetation structure. Sensitive and tolerant species differed in the type, frequency, and bandwidth of echolocation calls and roost use. Species sensitive to coffee use broadband and high‐pitched frequency‐modulated calls, which are efficient at detecting insects in complex vegetation, and roost in plant structures that may be lost as vegetation is simplified. In contrast, tolerant species used lower pitched constant‐frequency calls and roost in caves. We advocate for greater use of trait analyses in studies seeking to clarify the influence of agriculture on diverse tropical bat faunas.

    Abstract in Indonesian is available with online material.

     
    more » « less