Deforestation Impacts on Bat Functional Diversity in Tropical Landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Functional diversity is the variability in the functional roles carried out by species within ecosystems. Changes in the environment can affect this component of biodiversity and can, in turn, affect different processes, including some ecosystem services. This study aimed to determine the effect of forest loss on species richness, abundance and functional diversity of Neotropical bats. To this end, we identified six landscapes with increasing loss of forest cover in the Huasteca region of the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. We captured bats in each landscape using mist nets, and calculated functional diversity indices (functional richness and functional evenness) along with species richness and abundance. We analyzed these measures in terms of percent forest cover. We captured 906 bats (Phyllost

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Morales R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5142789 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature