Bat Species Diversity and Abundance of Trophic Guilds after a Major Hurricane along an Anthropic Disturbance Gradient

Abstract

The frequency and intensity of hurricanes have increased with climate change, and their effects on most taxa are not known. We analyzed a species diversity of bats in three locations with different regimes of anthropic disturbance. We assessed the effect of the season and post-hurricane time on the abundance of trophic guilds in coastal Jalisco, México, during the two years following Hurricane Patricia (category 4). During a sampling effort of 15,629.76 m2 of netting, we captured 790 bats of 21 species. The species diversity was higher in the site with the highest proportion of primary tropical deciduous forest and was higher in 2016 than in 2017; the species composition did not differ greatly between the two years. The abundance of bats in various trophic guilds varied relative to the four climatic seasons. The general abundance of bats, frugivores-omnivores, and insectivores showed a significant increasing trend over time after the hurricane, which may indicate a recovery of the ecosystem or an abundance of early-successional fruiting plants. The results also confirm that species diversity recovers faster in a conserved forest. Thus, it is important to conserve natural areas to mitigate the effects of major disturbances.