Composition, structure and diversity of phyllostomid bat assemblages in different successional stages of a tropical dry forest

Studies on successional dynamics in tropical systems have mostly focused on plant communities and mainly have been conducted in tropical humid areas. Here, we document changes in the structure of bat assemblages among secondary successional stages of a neotropical dry forest. We specifically focused on the speciose phyllostomid bat family, comprising most of the foraging guilds found among neotropical bats, including nectarivores and frugivores that play important roles in processes of plant reproduction and forest regeneration. To investigate bat species richness, diversity and abundance during successionnal processes, we mist-netted bat assemblages in 12 sites belonging to 4 different successional stages, namely pastures (0 yrs), early (3-5 yrs), intermediate (8-12 yrs) and late successional stage (>50 yrs). A capture effort of 142 nights using five mist-nets per night yielded 606 phyllostomid bats belonging to 16 species. Late stage was the most speciose sustaining all species found in the study (16 species against 9 for early and intermediate stages and 4 in pastures), and was the only environment where rare species occurred. Species found within any one successional stage were a combination of species found at the previous stage plus additional ones. This additive pattern appeared to be driven by the natural abundance of species, as the abundant species were found across more succesisonal stages than rarer species. Bats were significantly less speciose and less abundant in pastures, regardless of the foraging guild. Bat diversity and abundance did not differ significantly among early, intermediate and late stages. However, nectarivores were more abundant in early compared to late stage, probably as a consequence of differences in patterns of food availability. We conclude that areas of forest, recognized as late stage in our study, are the most important reservoirs of species richness. Secondary vegetation also contains diverse bat assemblages, while pastures only harbour a few abundant and vagile species occasionally crossing this habitat. We suggest that land-use regulations in this region focus on maintaining connectivity of a mosaic of areas of secondary and mature vegetation to insure the conservation of bat diversity as well as their important ecological interactions.