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The interaction between agricultural production and wildlife can shape,
and even condition, the functioning of both systems. In this study we i)
explored the degree to which a widespread European bat, namely the common
bent-wing bat Miniopterus schreibersii, consumes crop-damaging insects at
a continental scale, and ii) tested whether its dietary niche is shaped by
the extension and type of agricultural fields. We employed a dual-primer
DNA metabarcoding approach to characterise arthropod 16S and COI DNA
sequences within bat faecal pellets collected across 16 Southern European
localities, to first characterise the bat species’ dietary niche, secondly
measure the incidence of agricultural pests across their ranges, and
thirdly assess whether geographical dietary variation responds to
climatic, landscape diversity, agriculture type and vegetation
productivity factors. We detected 12 arthropod orders, among which
lepidopterans were predominant. We identified >200 species, 44 of
which are known to cause agricultural damage. Pest species were detected
at all but one sampling site and in 94% of the analysed samples.
Furthermore, the dietary diversity of M. schreibersii exhibited a negative
linear relation with the area of intensive agricultural fields, thus
suggesting crops restrict the dietary niche of bats to prey taxa
associated with agricultural production within their foraging range.
Overall our results imply that M. schreibersii might be a valuable asset
for biological pest suppression in a variety of agricultural productions,
and highlight the dynamic interplay between wildlife and agricultural
systems.
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