The earth is now subject to climate change and habitat deterioration on unprecedented scales. Monitoring climate change and habitat loss alone is insufficient if we are to understand the effects of these factors on complex biological communities. It is therefore important to identify bioindicator taxa that show measurable responses to climate change and habitat loss and that reflect wider-scale impacts on the biota of interest. We argue that bats have enormous potential as bioindicators: they show taxonomic stability, trends in their populations can be monitored, shortand longterm effects on populations can be measured and they are distributed widely around the globe. Because insectivorous bats occupy high trophic levels, they are sensitive to accumulations of pesticides and other toxins, and changes in their abundance may reflect changes in populations of arthropod prey species. Bats provide several ecosystem services, and hence reflect the status of the plant populations on which they feed and pollinate as well as the productivity of insect communities. Bat populations are affected by a wide range of stressors that affect many other taxa. In particular, changes in bat numbers or activity can be related to climate change (including extremes of drought, heat, cold and precipitation, cyclones and sea level rise), deterioration of water quality, agricultural intensification, loss and fragmentation of forests, fatalities at wind turbines, disease, pesticide use and overhunting. There is an urgent need to implement a global network for monitoring bat populations so their role as bioindicators can be used to its full potential.

/pdf/carpe-noctem-the-importance-of-bats-as-bioindicators-2apnd6pqai.pdf

Carpe noctem: the importance of bats as bioindicators

Tropical landscapes are dominated by land-use systems, but their contribution to the conservation of biodiversity is largely unknown. Since changes in biodiversity in response to human impact are known to differ widely among taxonomic groups and guilds, there is a need for multidisciplinary collaboration of plant, vertebrate, and invertebrate experts. We used inventories of trees, understory plants, birds (subdivided into endemics, insectivores, frugivores/nectar feeders), butterflies (endemics, fruit feeders), and dung bee- tles in Sulawesi (Indonesia) to characterize a gradient from near-primary to secondary forests, agroforestry systems, and annual crops. As expected, overall species richness tended to decrease within this gradient of increasing habitat modification, but, in contrast to pre- vious studies, we found the species richness between most taxonomic groups to be signif- icantly correlated (36 out of 38 pairwise comparisons). However, on average only 48% of the variance could be explained (within the five main groups), and only a few taxonomic groups/guilds turned out to be good predictors for others: for example, trees for fruit- and nectar-feeding birds (88% explanation) and fruit-feeding butterflies (83%), endemic birds for endemic butterflies (72%), and frugivorous/nectar-feeding birds for fruit-feeding but- terflies (67%). Although biodiversity of land-use systems showed taxonomic group- and guild-specific differences, most groups were affected in a similar way by habitat modifi- cation. Near-primary forest sites proved to be of principal importance for conservation; however, land-use systems such as secondary forests (for understory plants, birds, and butterflies) and agroforestry systems (for butterflies) supported relatively high numbers of species and might play a significant role for biodiversity conservation in tropical landscapes.

/pdf/biodiversity-indicator-groups-of-tropical-land-use-systems-3wrszcoa8k.pdf

Biodiversity indicator groups of tropical land‐use systems: comparing plants, birds, and insects

http://www.bio-nica.info/Biblioteca/Estrada2002ForestFragmentation.pdf

Bats in continuous forest, forest fragments and in an agricultural mosaic habitat-island at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico

Invertebrate focal taxa that can act as information surrogates for broader patterns of biodiversity are of increasing interest to conservation practitioners. Scarabaeine dung beetles have been widely proposed as an ideal group for biodiversity inventory and monitoring, they satisfy all of the criteria of an ideal focal taxon, and they have already been used in ecological research and biodiversity survey and conservation work in many regions of the world. Here I review the characteristics that make the Scarabaeinae suitable for this purpose and suggest future directions for the broader use of this group as a focal taxon.

Scarabaeine Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): An Invertebrate Focal Taxon for Biodiversity Research and Conservation

At Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, presence of dung and carrion beetles, were sampled using baited pitfall traps, at the following habitats: isolated forest fragments, forest edges, plantations (coffee, cacao, mixed, citrus and allspice), live fences and pastures. A total of 14,269 beetles representing 36 species were captured. Onthophagus batesi, Canthon femoralis, Canthidium centrale, Copris laeviceps, O. rhinolophus and Deltochilium pseudoparile accounted for 75% of the captures in the overall sample from 79 sites. Across forest fragments capture rates of species and individuals were associated positively to area and negatively to isolating distance. Rarefaction analysis showed that forest fragments were the most species-rich habitats followed by the mixed and cacao plantations, the forest edge, live fences and coffee, citrus and allspice plantations. Pastures were the least species-rich habitat. Horizontal and vertical diversity of the vegetation at the habitats studied influenced the species richness of dung and carrion beetles and the number of species in common between forest fragments and human-made habitats. A significant relationship existed between the number of non-flying mammals recorded at the study sites and the richness of species and individuals of dung beetles at the habitats investigated. The relevance of this information is discussed in the light of the ecological flexibility of dung and carrion beetle species and of possible conservation scenarios involving landscapes in which isolation of forest fragments is reduced by the presence in open areas of human-made vegetation such as plantations of cacao, coffee, cacao and coffee and live fences.

Dung and carrion beetles in tropical rain forest fragments and agricultural habitats at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico

Two dung beetle assemblages from rainforest and open forest in the wet tropics of north-eastern Australia are described. The fauna was sampled using flight intercept traps, baited pitfall traps and light traps, with flight intercept traps being the most effective sampling technique. Dung beetle species were found to be highly habitat specific with a switch from rainforest to open forest assemblages occurring over tens of metres. The majority of the fauna was active at night. The most abundant species were attracted to a variety of food types but several species appeared to specialize on either dung or mushrooms.

Habitat specificity and food preferences of an assemblage of tropical australian dung beetles

Surveys of the micohabitat distributioni of aduilt butterfly species were undertaken at thlee raiin forest sites in North QuLeenislanid, AuLstralia, enicomiipassinig a ranlge of r-aini forest vegetationi types. These surveys founi-d little evidence for a specialist canlopy faluna. Most species recorded in the canopy were often- seen close to the grounld. At all sites, most species were observed at the edge of the rain forest habitat; within the raini forest, more species were observed niear the grounid thani in the caniopy.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2559808.pdf

The spatial distribution of rain forest butterflies at three sites in North Queensland, Australia

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Habitat specificity and food preferences of an assemblage of tropical australian dung beetles

The spatial distribution of rain forest butterflies at three sites in North Queensland, Australia