Bats Limit Insects in a Neotropical Agroforestry System

Exclosure experiments have demonstrated the effects of bird predation on arthropods. In a Mexican coffee plantation, we excluded foliage-gleaning bird and bat predators from coffee plants. Effects of bats and birds were additive. In the dry season, birds reduced arthropods in coffee plants by 30%; b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2008-04, Vol.320 (5872), p.70-70
Main Authors: Williams-Guillén, Kimberly, Perfecto, Ivette, Vandermeer, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Arthropoda
Arthropods
Bats
Biological and medical sciences
Birds
Brevia
Chiroptera - physiology
Climate
Coffea
Dry seasons
Ecology
Ecosystem
Ecosystems
Environmental conservation
Forestry
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General forest ecology
Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology
Insecta
Mexico
Natural resources conservation
Plants
Population Dynamics
Predation
Predators
Predatory Behavior
Rainy seasons
Reproduction
Sea birds
Seasons
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
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Summary:Exclosure experiments have demonstrated the effects of bird predation on arthropods. In a Mexican coffee plantation, we excluded foliage-gleaning bird and bat predators from coffee plants. Effects of bats and birds were additive. In the dry season, birds reduced arthropods in coffee plants by 30%; birds and bats together reduced arthropods by 46%. In the wet season, bats reduced arthropods by 84%, whereas birds reduced them by only 58%. We conclude that previous "bird" exclosure experiments may have systematically underestimated the effects of bats.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1152944