Influence of local and landscape filters in neotropical BAT diversity within Brazilian savanna

• Grant number: 13/18465-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: November 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Grantee: Renata de Lara Muylaert
• Supervisor: Richard D. Stevens
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Louisiana State University (LSU), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/04096-0 - Bat diversity in Cerrado landscapes: is there a fragmentation threshold?, BP.MS

Abstract

Understanding how species and population traits and landscape configuration interact to determine realized dispersal distances and diversity patterns is one of the fundamental questions in Ecology. This study aims to: (1) Estimate the relative contribution of local variables and a set of landscape metrics of forest cover, configuration and matrix to explain bat assemblages within Brazilian savannas; (2) Understand the contribution of spatial structure on bat diversity using autocorrelation. The analysis will be carried out considering the approach of model selection by multiple competing hypotheses based on Akaike’s Information Theory. We expect that models combining local filters and spatial variables will be selected as good models explaining diversity among sites. We also expect that the spatial contribution (autocorrelation) to explain bat diversity will be low due to landscapes’ distribution. This study will contribute to the knowledge that can basis for better definitions about experimental studies on patterns of bat diversity and fragmentation in tropical environments, considering the most widely used method of detecting bats, the mist nets. These results, combined with my main Master’s project, might support conservation strategies definitions and identify areas with major restoring potentials considering bats as allies in future projects related. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MUYLAERT, RENATA L.; STEVENS, RICHARD D.; RIBEIRO, MILTON C.. Threshold effect of habitat loss on bat richness in cerrado-forest landscapes. Ecological Applications, v. 26, n. 6, p. 1854-1867, SEP 2016. (12/04096-0, 13/18465-0, 13/50421-2)