Cely-Gómez María Alejandra, Castillo-Figueroa Dennis, Pérez-Torres Jairo
Laboratorio de Ecología Funcional, Unidad de Ecología y Sistemática, Departamento de Biología, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.
Trop Life Sci Res. 2021 Mar;32(1):47-61. doi: 10.21315/tlsr2021.32.1.3. Epub 2021 Mar 31.
The surge of oil palm production in the Neotropics has become a major concern about the potential impacts on biodiversity. In the Colombian Orinoquia, which has shown a massive landscape transformation due to the growth of oil palm plantations, the effects of oil palm agriculture on bats in this region have not been studied up to date. To understand the impact of habitat conversion on bat diversity, we characterised bat assemblages in secondary forest and palm plantations in the Colombian Llanos foothills (Meta, Colombia). We captured 393 individuals (forest = 81, plantation = 312) of 18 species and 3 families. The forest cover presented three exclusive species while the plantation had five. Species diversity ( ) and evenness (') were higher in the forest compared to the plantation. These differences derived from the increase in abundances of generalist species ( sp., spp.) in the plantation. Despite the habitat simplification caused by oil palm plantations, this monoculture provides a cover that is used by some bats, decreasing their risk of predation and allowing movement between patches of forest habitat as steppingstones. Maintaining forest cover in agricultural landscapes favours diversity by generating a "spillover effect" of the forest towards plantations, which in the case of some bats contributes to the reduction of species isolation and the maintenance of ecosystem services provided by them. It is important to improve management practices of oil palm plantations to minimise negative impacts on biodiversity, considering the expansion of this productive system and the scarcity of protected areas in this region.
新热带地区油棕产量的激增已成为人们对其可能对生物多样性产生影响的主要担忧。在哥伦比亚奥里诺科地区，由于油棕种植园的扩张，当地景观发生了巨大变化，然而，迄今为止，该地区油棕农业对蝙蝠的影响尚未得到研究。为了解栖息地转变对蝙蝠多样性的影响，我们对哥伦比亚平原山麓（哥伦比亚梅塔省）的次生林和油棕种植园中的蝙蝠群落进行了特征描述。我们捕获了18个物种、分属3个科的393只个体（森林中81只，种植园中312只）。森林覆盖区域有3个特有物种，而种植园中有5个。与种植园相比，森林中的物种多样性（ ）和均匀度（'）更高。这些差异源于种植园中广食性物种（ 属、 属）数量的增加。尽管油棕种植园导致了栖息地简化，但这种单一栽培提供了一种被一些蝙蝠利用的掩护，降低了它们被捕食的风险，并允许它们作为踏脚石在森林栖息地斑块之间移动。在农业景观中保持森林覆盖通过产生森林对种植园的“溢出效应”有利于生物多样性，就某些蝙蝠而言，这有助于减少物种隔离并维持它们所提供的生态系统服务。考虑到这一生产系统的扩张以及该地区保护区的稀缺，改善油棕种植园的管理做法以尽量减少对生物多样性的负面影响非常重要。
