Pollination implications of the diverse diet of tropical nectar-feeding bats roosting in an urban cave.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Intense landscaping often alters the plant composition in urban areas. Knowing which plant species that pollinators are visiting in urban areas is necessary for understanding how landscaping impacts biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. The cave nectar bat, Eonycteris spelaea, is an important pollinator for many plants and is often recorded in human-dominated habitats. Previous studies of the diet of E. spelaea relied on morphological identification of pollen grains found in faeces and on the body of bats and by necessity disregarded other forms of digested plant material present in the faeces (i.e., plant juice and remnants). The main objective of this study was to examine the diet of the nectarivorous bat, E. spelaea, roosting in an urban

SUBMITTER: Lim VC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5875395 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature