Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc., Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jun 4;14(1):12778. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-63062-3.
Working forests comprise a large proportion of forested landscapes in the southeastern United States and are important to the conservation of bats, which rely on forests for roosting and foraging. While relationships between bat ecology and forest management are well studied during summer, winter bat ecology remains understudied. Hence, we aimed to identify the diet composition of overwintering bats, compare the composition of prey consumed by bat species, and determine the potential role of forest bats as pest controllers in working forest landscapes of the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain. During January to March 2021-2022, we captured 264 bats of eight species. We used DNA metabarcoding to obtain diet composition from 126 individuals of seven bat species identifying 22 orders and 174 families of arthropod prey. Although Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera were the most consumed orders, we found that bats had a generalist diet but with significant differences among some species. We also documented the consumption of multiple insect pests (e.g., Rhyacionia frustrana) and disease vectors (e.g., Culex spp). Our results provide important information regarding the winter diet of bats in the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain and their potential role in controlling economically relevant pest species and disease vectors.
工作森林构成了美国东南部森林景观的很大一部分，对蝙蝠的保护至关重要，蝙蝠依赖森林来栖息和觅食。虽然蝙蝠生态学与森林管理之间的关系在夏季得到了很好的研究，但冬季蝙蝠生态学的研究仍然不足。因此，我们旨在确定越冬蝙蝠的饮食组成，比较蝙蝠物种所消耗的猎物组成，并确定森林蝙蝠作为美国东南部沿海平原工作森林景观中害虫控制者的潜在作用。在 2021 年至 2022 年 1 月至 3 月期间，我们捕获了 264 只蝙蝠，共 8 个物种。我们使用 DNA 代谢组学从 7 种蝙蝠的 126 个个体中获取饮食组成，鉴定了 22 个目和 174 个节肢动物猎物科。尽管鞘翅目、双翅目和鳞翅目是最消耗的目，但我们发现蝙蝠的饮食具有广义性，但在某些物种之间存在显著差异。我们还记录了多种害虫（如 Rhyacionia frustrana）和疾病媒介（如 Culex spp.）的消耗。我们的研究结果提供了关于美国东南部沿海平原蝙蝠冬季饮食及其在控制经济相关害虫和疾病媒介方面潜在作用的重要信息。
