DIVERSITY OF BATS (MAMMALIA: CHIROPTERA) IN THE MIDDLE MADEIRA RIVER

• Grant number: 23/07504-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Joyce Rodrigues Do Prado
• Grantee: Davi Monteiro Nunes
• Host Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/12632-0 - An old sample tells a good story: the evolutionary history of mammals from the diagonal of open vegetation of South America told by biological collections, AP.BTA.JP

Abstract

For a long time, biological collections performed the role of cataloging and storing the existing diversity. However, its recent use by researchers has been spreading in several integrative approaches with other disciplines. Given the increasing loss of diversity by anthropogenic interference, specimens in these collections sometimes represent the last physical records of certain species. A region suffering a lot from this type of activity is the Amazon, which encompasses a great diversity of mammals, 60% of which are endemic. Bats (Chiroptera), in particular, suffer greatly from human activities. Even though they are incredibly diverse, they are susceptible to environmental changes. The vast hydrography of the Amazon attracts great economic interest in the generation of energy by the hydroelectric plants, so that the bat fauna may have difficulties recovering after the intervention of these enterprises. The Jirau hydroelectric plant (Rondônia) is one of the most recently installed in the Amazon forest. During its installation, extensive monitoring of fauna was conducted. The specimens captured within the scope of this monitoring are currently at the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo (MZUSP). Thus, given the deforestation of the Amazon biome, measuring the diversity of these organisms is necessary for their preservation. To this end, genetic and morphological data will be extracted from the deposited specimens at the MZUSP to create an annotated list of chiropteran species in the Middle Madeira River. Secondarily, it is expected to increase the understanding of these bats' intraspecific and interspecific morphological variation and produce a barcode library of the sampled species. Finally, this proposal also aims to assist in curating this material in the MZUSP mammal collection and identifying and processing this sample.