Spatial, temporal, and dietary niche partitioning of a bat community in northern California
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Niche partitioning allows species with similar environmental and resource demands to coexist and is thus an ecological mechanism for producing and maintaining biodiversity. Bats, the second largest group of mammals in terms of species richness, often co-occur with other ecologically similar bat species, as is seen with the multiple insectivorous bat species that reside in the Bay Area. At Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, ongoing research has used bat echolocation data to understand how the 16 resident bat species partition space and time. However, dietary niche partitioning has not been assessed in these species, and not all the Jasper Ridge species have been represented in previous studies. This study used two different methods to assess niche partitioning patterns among bat species at a local roosting site: 1) DNA sequencing of bat feces that were collected weekly from the roost, and 2) nightly acoustic recordings of ultrasonic bat calls from a bioacoustic recorder. DNA sequencing indicated that the two primary species using the roosting site were Tadarida brasiliensis and Eptesicus fuscus. Echolocation and dietary metabarcoding data suggested that sympatric T. brasiliensis and E. fuscus may be engaging in spatial niche partitioning with several other local bat species detected acoustically, but not observed at the roost. There was also evidence of dietary differences that may be related to subtle temporal partitioning, offering some support to the hypothesis that these co-occurring, ecologically similar species may foster coexistence through temporal and dietary niche partitioning. The dietary differences between the two species may indeed be larger than observed in this study, as analyses were conducted at the level of arthropod families rather than genera or species. Understanding interspecific relationships, between both bat species and their arthropod prey, allows us to predict how such interactions may change under different ecological conditions and to predict the impacts of climate change, habitat loss, and biodiversity loss on these local species.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | May 6, 2022; May 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Suresh, Vrinda |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Hadly, Elizabeth |
| Thesis advisor | Dirzo, Rodolfo |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Biology |
Subjects
| Subject | Biology |
|---|---|
| Subject | Ecology |
| Subject | Niche (Ecology) |
| Subject | Bats > Ecology |
| Subject | Insects |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Suresh, V. and Hadly, E. (2023). Spatial, temporal, and dietary niche partitioning of a bat community in northern California. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/nh175tz9831
Collection
Undergraduate Theses, Department of Biology, 2021-2022
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- Contact
- vrindams@stanford.edu
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