Abstracts
Fire is a common and natural event in Cerrado that can influence the composition of trees and mammals and change the entire conditions of the environment. This study was developed in a gallery forest of Distrito Federal - Brazil. Bat samplings were conducted for a total of six nights after a fire that happened on the gallery forest. Three samplings were conducted: one day, three months and seven months after fire. A total of nine mist nets (12 m x 3 m) were opened from 7pm to 1am. Captured bats were measured and identified to species. Shannon index measured the species diversity of bats in the gallery forest over time. A rarefaction curve was made to assess the estimated bat richness in each of the samplings and a chi-square test was used to check whether there have been changes on bat abundances over time. A total of 46 bats from 8 different species and one family were captured. The most abundant species was Sturnira lilium. Species diversity and abundance increased over time and there was a gradual accumulation of species and specimens indicating that the succession and recovery of the forest occurs due to a temporal addition of specimens and species in the assemblage and not as punctual occurrences. Probably, this recovery pattern reflects a gradual increase in the availability of resources and recovery of the forest canopy, progressively offering more shelter and food for the bat assemblage.
Chiroptera; Cerrado; fire; impact; recovery
O fogo é um evento comum e natural no Cerrado que pode influenciar a composição de árvores e mamíferos e mudar totalmente as condições do ambiente. Esse estudo foi desenvolvido na mata de galeria do Distrito Federal - Brazil. As amostragens dos morcegos foram conduzidas por um total de seis noites depois da ocorrência do fogo na mata de galeria. Três amostragens foram conduzidas: um dia, três meses e sete meses depois que o fogo ocorreu. Um total de nove redes de neblina (12 m x 3 m) foram abertas das 7pm a 1am. Os morcegos capturados foram medidos e identificados ao nível de espécie. O índice de Shannon mediu a diversidade de espécies de morcegos na mata de galeria ao longo do tempo. Uma curva de rarefação foi feita para acessar a riqueza estimada de morcegos em cada amostragem e um teste qui-quadrado foi usado para verificar se houve mudanças na abundância de morcegos ao longo do tempo. Um total de 46 morcegos de 8 espécies diferentes e uma família foram capturados. A espécie mais abundante foi Sturnira lilium. A diversidade de espécies e abundância aumentaram com o tempo e houve um acúmulo gradual de espécies e espécimes indicando que a sucessão e recuperação da mata ocorreu com uma adição temporal de espécimes e espécies na assembleia e não de forma pontual. Provavelmente, o padrão de recuperação reflete o aumento gradual na disponibilidade de recursos alimentares e recuperação do dossel da mata, que progressivamente passaram a ofertar mais abrigo e alimento para a assembleia de morcegos.
Chiroptera; Cerrado; fogo; impacto e recuperação
Introduction
Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight. This ability enabled them to explore an enormous variety of niches that had never been used by any other mammal species (Norberg 1994NORBERG, U.M. 1994. Wing design, flight performance, and habitat use in bats. In: Ecological morphology: integrative organismal biology. (Wainwright, P.C. & Reilly, S.M., ed.). The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. p. 205-239.
OLIVEIRA, E.C. & FELFILI, J.M. 1997. Estrutura e dinâmica da regeneração de uma mata de galeria no Distrito Federal, Brasil. Acta Bot. Bras. 19(4):801-811, 10.1590/S0102-33062005000400016.
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). In the Neotropical region, frugivory is a common characteristic of bat species from the Phyllostomidae family (Altringham 1997ALTRINGHAM, J.D. 1998. Bats: biology and behavior. Oxford University, New York.). There are different explanations concerning the occurrence of frugivorous bats in the Neotropics. In most cases, bat occurrence is associated with food distribution and availability (Morrison 1978MORRISON, D.W. 1978. Foraging ecology and energetic of the frugivorous bat Artibeus jamaicensis. Ecology 59(4):716-723, 10.2307/1938775.
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; Heithaus & Fleming 1978HEITHAUS, E.R. & FLEMING, T.H. 1978. Foraging Movements of a Frugivorous Bat, Carollia perspicillata (Phyllostomatidae). Ecol. Monogr. 48(2):127-143, 10.2307/2937296.
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; Fleming 1988FLEMING, T.H. 1988. The Short-Tailed Fruit Bat: A Study in Plant-Animal Interactions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.; Lima & Reis 2004LIMA, I.P. & REIS, N.R. 2004. The availability of Piperaceae and the search for this resource by Carollia perspicillata (Linnaeus) (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae, Carollinae) in Parque Municipal Arthur Thomas, Londrina, Paraná, Brasil. Rev. Bras. Zoo. 21(2):371-377, 10.1590/S0101-81752004000200035.
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). In total, the neotropical savannah of Cerrado comprises about 106 bat species (Aguiar & Machado 2010AGUIAR, L.M.S. & MACHADO, R.B. 2010. Áreas prioritárias para a pesquisa de morcegos no domínio do Cerrado. In: Cerrado: conhecimento científico quantitativo como subsídio para ações de conservação (Diniz, I.R., Marinho-Filho, J., Machado, R.B. & Cavalvanti, R.B., ed.). Thesaurus, Brasília. p. 425-440) making it the richest group of mammals in this domain (Marinho-Filho & Guimarães 2001MARINHO-FILHO, J. & GUIMARAES, M.M. 2001. Mamiferos das Matas de Galeria e Matas Ciliares do Distrito Federal. In: Cerrado: caracterizacao e recuperacao de matas de galeria. (Ribeiro, J.F., Fonseca, C.E.L. & Sousa-Silva, J.C., ed.) Embrapa - Cerrados, Planaltina. p. 529 - 557.). Although gallery forests comprise only 5% of the total area of Cerrado, this formation hosts more than 80% of its mammal species and most of them are bats (Marinho-filho & Gastal 2000MARINHO-FILHO, J. & GASTAL, M.L. 2000. Mamíferos das matas ciliares dos Cerrados do Brasil Central. In: Matas ciliares: conservacao e recuperação (Rodrigues, R.R. & Filho, H.F.L., ed.). Editora da Universidade de Sao Paulo, São Paulo. p. 209-221.).
Fire is a common and natural event in Cerrado regions (Miranda, Bustamente & Miranda 2002MIRANDA, H.S., BUSTAMANTE, M.M.C. & MIRANDA, A.C. 2002. The fire factor. In: The Cerrados of Brazil: ecology and natural history of a neotropical savanna. (Oliveira, P.S. & Marquis, R.J., ed.). Columbia University Press, New York. p. 51-68.) and form an important structuring factor of their vegetal communities and phytophysiognomies (Hoffman & Moreira 2000). Fires can cause high mortality rates of wooded plants and mammals, influencing the composition of tree species and the mammalian fauna (Hoffman & Moreira 2000; Henriques et al. 2000HENRIQUES, R.P.B., BIZERRIL, M.X.A. & PALMA, A.R.T. 2000. Changes in small mammal populations after fire in a patch of unburned cerrado in Central Brazil. Mammalia 64 (2):173-186, 10.1515/mamm.2000.64.2.173.
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; Briani et al. 2004BRIANI, D.C., PALMA, A.R.T., VIEIRA, E.M. & HENRIQUES, R.P.B. 2004. Post-fire succession of small mammals in the Cerrado of central Brazil. Biodivers. Conser. 13:1023-1037, 10.1023/B:BIOC.0000014467.27138.0b.
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) as they tend to favor the establishment of gramineae and pioneer species (Hoffman & Moreira 2000). Although gallery forests are more difficult to burn due to their low amount of gramineae and high humidity (Hoffman et al. 2003HOFFMAN, W.A., ORTHEN, B. & NASCIMENTO, P.K.V. 2003. Comparative fire ecology of tropical savanna and forest trees. Funct. Ecol. 17:720-726, 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2003.00796.x.
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), fires are an important component of their dynamics, especially in their borders (Hoffman 1999HOFFMAN, W.A. 1999. The role of fire in the population dynamics of woody plant of the Brazilian Cerrado. PhD thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge.
HOFFMANN, W.A. & MOREIRA, A.G. 2002. The role of fire in population dynamics of woody plants. In: The Cerrados of Brazil: ecology and natural history of a neotropical savanna. (Oliveira, P.S. & Marquis, R.J., ed.). Columbia University Press, New York. p 159-177.). Fires can induce changes in forest structure, composition and promote the development of plant species that are more light tolerant (Miguel et al. 2011MIGUEL, A., MARIMON, B.S., MARACHIPES, L., OLIVEIRA, E.A. & JUNIOR, B.H.M. 2011. Mudanças na estrutura da vegetação lenhosa em três porções da mata de galeria do córrego bacaba (1999-2006), Nova Xavantina - MT. Rev. Árvore 35(3):725-735.) and shifts in the composition of trees (Santiago et al. 2005SANTIAGO, J., JUNIOR, M.C.S. & LIMA, L.C. 2005. Fitossociologia da regeneração arbórea na mata de galeria do Pitoco (INGE-DF), seis anos após fogo acidental. Scentia Florest 67:64-77.
SCHULZE, M.D., SEAVY, N.E. & WHITACRE, D.F. 2000. A comparison of the phyllostomid bat assemblages in undisturbed neotropical forest and in forest fragments of a slash-an-burn farming mosaic in Peten, Guatemala. Biotropica 32(1):174-184.), but borders are usually less affected as they have plants that are more adapted and resistant to it (Meave et al. 1991MEAVE, J., KELLMAN, M., MAC, D.D. & ROSLES, J. 1991. Riparian habitats as tropical forests refugia. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 1:69-76, 10.2307/2997492.
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).
The few studies reporting the effects of fire on the mammal fauna are for small non-flying mammals (Viera & Marinho-Filho 1998VIEIRA, E.M. & MARINHO-FILHO, J. 1998. Pre- and post-fire habitat utilization by rodents of Cerrado from Central Brazil. Biotropica 30 (3):491-496, 10.1111/j.1744-7429.1998.tb00086.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.1998...
; Vieira 1999VIEIRA, E.M. 1999. Small mammal communities and fire in the Brazilian Cerrado. J. Zool. 249:75-81, 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1999.tb01061.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1999...
;Henriques et al. 2000HENRIQUES, R.P.B., BIZERRIL, M.X.A. & PALMA, A.R.T. 2000. Changes in small mammal populations after fire in a patch of unburned cerrado in Central Brazil. Mammalia 64 (2):173-186, 10.1515/mamm.2000.64.2.173.
https://doi.org/10.1515/mamm.2000.64.2.1...
; Briani et al. 2004BRIANI, D.C., PALMA, A.R.T., VIEIRA, E.M. & HENRIQUES, R.P.B. 2004. Post-fire succession of small mammals in the Cerrado of central Brazil. Biodivers. Conser. 13:1023-1037, 10.1023/B:BIOC.0000014467.27138.0b.
https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BIOC.000001446...
). Most studies reporting the effects of fire on bats have been carried out on North American forests with special attention to insectivorous species (Boyles & Aubrey 2006BOYLES, J.G. & AUBREY, D.P. 2006. Managing forests with prescribed fire: implications for a cavity-dwelling bat species. Forest Ecol. and Manag. 222:108-115, 10.1016/j.foreco.2005.09.024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2005.09...
; Dickinson et al. 2008DICKINSON, M.B., LACKI, M.J. & COX, D.R. 2008. Fire and the endangered Indiana bat. Proc. 3rd Fire East. Oak Forest Conf.:51-75.; Loeb & Waldrop 2008LOEB, S.C. & WALDROP, T.A. 2008. Bat activity in relation to fire and fire surrogate treatments in southern pine stands. Forest. Ecol. Manag. 255 (8-9):3185-3192, 10.1016/j.foreco.2007.10.060.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2007.10...
; Lacki et al. 2009;LACKI, M.J., COX, D.R., DODD, L.E. & DICKINSON, M.B. 2009. Response of Northern bats (Myotis septentrionalis) to Prescribed Fires in Eastern Kentucky Forests. J. Mammal. (90):1165-1175, 10.1644/08-MAMM-A-349.1.
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Layne 2009LAYNE, J.T. 2009. Eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) response to fire stimulus during torpor. Dissertation thesis, Missouri State University, Missouri.; Fisher & Wilkinson 2005FISHER, J.T. & WILKINSON, L. 2005. The response of mammals to forest fire and timber harvest in the North American boreal forest. Mammal Rev. 35(1):51-81, 10.1111/j.1365-2907.2005.00053.x.
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; Johnson et al. 2010JOHNSON, J.B., FORD, W.M., RODRIGUE, J.L., EDWARDS, J.W. & JOHNSON, C.M. 2010. Roost selection by male Indiana Myotis following forest fires in Central Appalachian Hardwoods forests. J. Fish Wild. Manag. 1 (2):111-121, 10.3996/042010-JFWM-007.
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; Dickinson et al. 2010DICKINSON, M.B., NORRIS, J.C., BIVA, A.S., KREMENS, R.L., YOUNG, V. & LACKI, M.J. 2010. Effects of wildland fire smoke on a tree-roosting bat: integrating a plume model, field measurements, and mammalian dose-response relationships. Can. J. Forest Rest. 40:2187-2203, 10.1139/X10-148.
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; Perry 2011PERRY, R.W. 2011. A review of fire effects on bats and bat habitat in the eastern oak region. Proceedings of the 4th Fire in Eastern Oak Forests Conference: 170-191.; Silvis 2011SILVIS, A. 2011. The response of bats to shelterwood harvest and prescribed fire. Dissertation Thesis, The Ohio State University, Ohio.; Armitage & Ober 2012ARMITAGE, D.W. & OBER, H.K. 2012. The effects of presribed fire on bat communities in the longleaf pine sendhills ecosystem. J. Mammal. 93(1):102-114, 10.1644/11-MAMM-A-169.1.
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). According to Fisher & Wilkinson (2005)FISHER, J.T. & WILKINSON, L. 2005. The response of mammals to forest fire and timber harvest in the North American boreal forest. Mammal Rev. 35(1):51-81, 10.1111/j.1365-2907.2005.00053.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2005...
, bat activity after fire may vary according to the density of the remaining trees. In some cases, insectivorous bats may be unresponsive to fire (Loeb & Waldrop 2008LOEB, S.C. & WALDROP, T.A. 2008. Bat activity in relation to fire and fire surrogate treatments in southern pine stands. Forest. Ecol. Manag. 255 (8-9):3185-3192, 10.1016/j.foreco.2007.10.060.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2007.10...
), fire may increase shelter availability in dead trees (Boyles & Aubrey 2006BOYLES, J.G. & AUBREY, D.P. 2006. Managing forests with prescribed fire: implications for a cavity-dwelling bat species. Forest Ecol. and Manag. 222:108-115, 10.1016/j.foreco.2005.09.024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2005.09...
) or decrease bat activity (Silvis 2011SILVIS, A. 2011. The response of bats to shelterwood harvest and prescribed fire. Dissertation Thesis, The Ohio State University, Ohio.). However, there is no study on the effect of fire in frugivorous and nectarivorous bats or the response of the chiropterofauna to fire in Cerrado.
The objective of this study is to report the response of frugivorous and nectarivorous bat species to a fire that burned a gallery forest in the Neotropical savanna of Cerrado.
Methods
This study was developed in a gallery forest of a small farm (Chácara Solar da Águia - 15°55.640’ S; 47°49.890’ W) located in the Distrito Federal - Brazil. The forest was characterized by its reduced width (100 meters in the portion sampled), presence of clearings and exotic plants, like bamboos, and pastures in its surrounding area. The fire burned the whole forest, from small shrubs to tall trees, along its whole width and at least 4 km of its extension. Fire promoted an increase in the number and size of gaps, a reduction of its width and the establishment of pioneer plants inside it. Bat sampling was conducted for two consecutive nights each time in a total of six nights. The first sampling started one day after the fire (19th and 20th of September of 2007), the second after three months and the last sampling after seven months. A total of nine mist nets (eight 2m x 12m and one 2m x 6m) were opened from 7pm to 1am on each night. Captured bats were tagged with plastic rings, had their forearm lengths measured with a caliper and were identified to species level (Vizotto & Taddei 1973VIZOTTO, L.D. & TADDEI, V.A. 1973. Chave para a determinacao de quirópteros brasileiros. Bol. Cienc 1:1-72.).
Shannon index was used to measure the diversity of species in each sampling with Biodiversity Pro software (McAleece 1997MCALEECE, N. 1997. Biodiversity Professional. The National History Museum and The Scottish Association for Marine Science. Version Beta. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/zoology/bdpro
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/zoology/bdpro...
). A rarefaction curve was made to assess the estimated bat richness in each samplings and the chi-square test was used to check whether there have been changes in the abundance of bats over time. Both calculations were made with the software R (Ihaka & Gentleman 1996IHAKA, R. & GENTLEMAN, R.R. 1996. A language for data analysis and grafics. J. Comput. Graph. Stat. 5(2):229-314.).
Results and discussion
A total of 46 bats from 8 species and one family were captured (Table 1). The highest richness of species, abundance and diversity were registered in the last sampling. The most abundant species was Sturnira lilium with 16 captured specimens, representing 43.5% of the total catches. One Carollia perspicillata was recaptured in the seventh month, suggesting that after three months, some specimens were already using the area more continuously after the fire. The diversity of species increased over time, as can be seen by the increasing values of H’, indicating recovery of the area. The χ2 test showed a significant difference (χ2= 29,92 DF= 2, 9 < 0,001) in the total of bats captured in each period, indicating an increase in the abundance of bats over time. Rarefaction curves (Figure 1) didn’t evidence differences in species richness between areas, but a gradual accumulation of species and specimens was observed and all of the species captured in the first or second month of sampling were also captured on a later moment and always with a higher abundance than was previously recorded.
Rarefaction curve of bat species captured after one day, three months and seven months of a fire that happened in a forest gallery of Distrito Federal - Brazil.
These results indicate that the succession of the gallery forest for bats is given by the temporal addition of specimens and species in the assemblage and not by their punctual occurrences. Although it’s difficult to estimate the recovery of the forest itself after a fire as the conditions probably don’t return to the initial phase as there is a change in the composition of tree species (Santiago et al. 2005), the present recovery pattern for bats seems to be more related to a gradual increase in the availability of food resources and shelter in the area.
In contrast to the fauna of small non-flying mammals, which normally reach their abundance peak shortly after fire due to an increase in the gramineae of the area (Yarnell et al., 2007YARNELL, R.W., SCOTT, E.D.M., CHIMIMBA, E.C.T. & METCALFE, D.J. 2007. Untangling the roles of fire, grazing and rainfall on small mammal communities in grassland ecosystems. Oecologia 154:387-402, 10.1007/s00442-007-0841-9.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0841-...
), the low abundance and richness of bats during the first sampling may have been influenced by the high mortality of wooded plants that can happen after a fire (Santiago et al. 2005SANTIAGO, J., JUNIOR, M.C.S. & LIMA, L.C. 2005. Fitossociologia da regeneração arbórea na mata de galeria do Pitoco (INGE-DF), seis anos após fogo acidental. Scentia Florest 67:64-77.), which resulted on an initial decrease of food supply and shelter deficit under foliage.
The gradual increase in richness and abundance over the following months may also have occurred as a result of the establishment of pioneer plants such as some Solanaceae that were found in the area and the recovery of the foliage in the canopy. Boyles & Audrey (2006)BOYLES, J.G. & AUBREY, D.P. 2006. Managing forests with prescribed fire: implications for a cavity-dwelling bat species. Forest Ecol. and Manag. 222:108-115, 10.1016/j.foreco.2005.09.024.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2005.09...
reported a rise in light penetration and a reduction of tree density together with an increased availability of shelters for bats in a semi deciduous forest in United States of America after fire. Nardoto (2000)NARDOTO, G.B. 2000. Efeito de queimadas na mineralização de nitrogênio e em processos de ciclagem de nutrientes em uma área de cerrado sensu stricto. Dissertation thesis, University of Brasília, Brasília. observed that at heights above 160 cm, foliage may be exposed to hot air flows with possible and intense fall of leaves only a few days after fire. This effect could have reduced the availability of shelter for species that roost under leaves, like species of the genus Artibeus, justifying its record only later in the assemblage. The late record of Artibeus species was not expected as they are common species in gallery forests and could easily cross substantially modified areas as they are highly vagile (Bernard & Fenton 2003BERNARD, E. & FENTON, M.B. 2003. Bat mobility and roosts in a fragmented landscape in Central Amazonia, Brazil. Biotropica 35(2):262-277.; Costa et al. 2006COSTA, L.M., PRATA, A.F.D., MORAES, D., CONDE, C.F.V., JORDÃO-NOGUEIRA, T. & ESBÉRARD, C.E.L. 2006. Deslocamento de Artibeus fimbriatus sobre o mar. Chiroptera Neotropical 12(2):289-290.; Jr et al. 2008JR, L.F.M., DUARTE, A.C., NOVAES, R.L.M., FAÇANHA, A.C., PERACCHI, A.L., COSTA, L.M., FERNANDES, A.F.P.D. & ESBÉRARD, C.E.L. 2008. Deslocamento de Artibeus lituratus (Olfers, 1818) (Mammalia, Chiroptera) entre ilha e continente no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Biota Neotrop. 8 (2):243-245.). This fact helps to reinforce the big impact of the fire on the bat assemblage.
Although natural regenerating gallery forests are stable regarding their vegetation composition and structure (Oliveira & Felfili 2005OLIVEIRA, E.C. & FELFILI, J.M. 1997. Estrutura e dinâmica da regeneração de uma mata de galeria no Distrito Federal, Brasil. Acta Bot. Bras. 19(4):801-811, 10.1590/S0102-33062005000400016.
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) and to keep their diversity of plant species (Felfili 1997FELFILI, J.M. 1997. Dynamics of the natural regenration in the Gama gallery forest in central Brazil. Forest Ecol. Manag. 91(2-3):235-245, 10.1016/S0378-1127(96)03862-5.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(96)03...
), fire can cause intense death of trees in gallery forests and change their floristic composition (Santiago et al. 2005SANTIAGO, J., JUNIOR, M.C.S. & LIMA, L.C. 2005. Fitossociologia da regeneração arbórea na mata de galeria do Pitoco (INGE-DF), seis anos após fogo acidental. Scentia Florest 67:64-77.), promote secondary succession and formations of clearings that play similar roles as the gaps of continuous forests (Kellman and Meave 2007KELLMAN, M. & MEAVE, J. 2007. Fire in the tropical gallery forests of Belize. J. Biogeogr. 24(1):23-34, 10.1111/j.1365-2699.1997.tb00047.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.1997...
). There is usually an increase in the abundance of some species of bats in open and degraded environments, like S. lilium and other frugivore species (Castro-Luna et al. 2007CASTRO-LUNA, A., SOSA, V.J. & CASTILLO-CAMPOS, G. 2007. Bat diversity and abundance associated with the degree of secondary succession in a tropical forest mosaic in south-eastern Mexico. Anim. Conserv. 10:219-228, 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2007.00097.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2007...
; Willig et al. 2007WILLIG, M.R., PRESLEY, S.J., BLOCH, C.P., HICE, C.L., YANOVIAK, S.L., DIAZ, M.M., CHAUCA, L.A., PACHECO, V. & WEAVER, S.C. 2007. Phyllostomid Bats of Lowland Amazonia: Effects of Habitat Alteration on Abundance. Biotropica 39(6):737-746, 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00322.x.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007...
). The colonization of forest clearings by pioneer plants in this study, especially from the family Solanaceae, may have occurred together with the recording of the first bat species after fire and the initial recovery of the forest. Silva et al. (2005)SILVA, V.F., FILHO, A.T.O., VENTURIN, N., CARVALHO, W.A.C. & GOMES, J.B.V. 2005. Impacto do fogo no componente arbóreo de uma floresta estacional semidecídua no município de Ibituruna, MG, Brasil. Acta Bot. Bras. 19(4):701-716, 10.1590/S0102-33062005000400005.
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-3306200500...
observed the formation of clearings and the presence of a great number of species of the genus Cecropia, Piper and Solanum in a semideciduous broadleaved forest after the fire. These plant genera constitute some of the main plant items in the diet of species such as: C. perspicillata, Sturnira lilium and Artibeus spp. (Bizerril & Raw 1998BIZERRIL, M.X.A. & RAW, A. 1998. Feeding behavior of bats and the dispersal of Piper aroboreum seeds in Brazil. J. Trop. Ecol. 14: 109-114, 10.1017/S0266467498000108.
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; Garcia et al. 2000GARCIA, Q.S., REZENDE, J.L.P. & AGUIAR, L.M.S. 2000. Seed dispersal by bats in a disturbed área of Southeastern Brazil. Rev. Biol. Trop. 48(1):125-128.; Aguiar & Marinho-Filho 2007AGUIAR, L.M.S. & MARINHO-FILHO, J. 2007. Bat frugivory in a remnant of Southeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Acta Chiropterol. 9(1):251-260, 10.3161/1733-5329(2007)9[251:BFIARO]2.0.CO;2.
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; Mikich 2002MIKICH, S.B. 2002. A dieta dos morcegos frugívoros (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) de um pequeno remanescente de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual do sul do Brasil. Rev. Bras. Zoo. 19(1):239-249, 10.1590/S0101-81752002000100023.
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-8175200200...
). These bat species are also, in many cases, dispersers of pioneer plants (Bizerril & Raw 1998BIZERRIL, M.X.A. & RAW, A. 1998. Feeding behavior of bats and the dispersal of Piper aroboreum seeds in Brazil. J. Trop. Ecol. 14: 109-114, 10.1017/S0266467498000108.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S026646749800010...
; Garcia et al. 2000GARCIA, Q.S., REZENDE, J.L.P. & AGUIAR, L.M.S. 2000. Seed dispersal by bats in a disturbed área of Southeastern Brazil. Rev. Biol. Trop. 48(1):125-128.; Aguiar & Marinho-Filho 2007AGUIAR, L.M.S. & MARINHO-FILHO, J. 2007. Bat frugivory in a remnant of Southeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Acta Chiropterol. 9(1):251-260, 10.3161/1733-5329(2007)9[251:BFIARO]2.0.CO;2.
https://doi.org/10.3161/1733-5329(2007)9...
; Mikich 2002MIKICH, S.B. 2002. A dieta dos morcegos frugívoros (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) de um pequeno remanescente de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual do sul do Brasil. Rev. Bras. Zoo. 19(1):239-249, 10.1590/S0101-81752002000100023.
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-8175200200...
), indicating that they could also be helping in the regeneration process of the forest.
Although fire may have momentarily diminished the supply of food and shelter for bats, as time went by, conditions have changed and there was an increase of food supply, especially those that are more adapted to relatively altered environments and forest gaps. Therefore, it is possible that bat assemblages in gallery forests may have a considerable capacity for recovery when affected by fires and succession in these areas may occur on basis of temporal sum of specimens and species and not by eventual colonization as frugivorous species are most likely attracted by the reestablishment of original features of the forest and colonization by pioneer plants used in their diets.
Acknowlegdments
We would like to acknowledge the owner of the farm Solar da Águia by the permission to work on his property, to Ibama for the permission to capture the bats and to the University of Brasília, CAPES and FAP-DF for the funding and support to develop this research.
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Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
2015
History
-
Received
20 July 2015 -
Accepted
18 Nov 2015