Dr Christoph Meyer's Outputs (63)

Nature-based solutions to increase rice yield: An experimental assessment of the role of birds and bats as agricultural pest suppressors in West Africa (2024)
Journal Article
Sottomayor, M., Palmeirim, A. F., Meyer, C. F. J., De Lima, R. F., Rocha, R., & Rainho, A. (2024). Nature-based solutions to increase rice yield: An experimental assessment of the role of birds and bats as agricultural pest suppressors in West Africa. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 370, Article 109067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109067

Rice is widely consumed as a staple food, being cultivated worldwide. However, in West Africa, production is not enough to satisfy demand. Rice often suffers intensive damage by herbivorous arthropods that affect quality and quantity of the grain. Bi... Read More about Nature-based solutions to increase rice yield: An experimental assessment of the role of birds and bats as agricultural pest suppressors in West Africa.

Multiple dimensions of phyllostomid bat biodiversity across ecosystems of the Orinoco Llanos (2024)
Journal Article
Farneda, F. Z., Otálora‐Ardila, A., Meyer, C. F. J., López‐Arévalo, H. F., Gómez‐Posada, C., & Polanía, J. (in press). Multiple dimensions of phyllostomid bat biodiversity across ecosystems of the Orinoco Llanos. Animal Conservation, https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12941

Understanding the impacts of habitat conversion on species assemblages across multiple biodiversity dimensions (taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic) and spatial scales is pivotal for implementing effective conservation strategies. Here, we survey... Read More about Multiple dimensions of phyllostomid bat biodiversity across ecosystems of the Orinoco Llanos.

Trait-mediated filtering predicts phyllostomid bat responses to habitat disturbance in the Orinoco Llanos (2024)
Journal Article
Otálora-Ardila, A., Farneda, F. Z., Meyer, C. F. J., López-Arévalo, H. F., Polanía, J., & Gómez-Posada, C. (2024). Trait-mediated filtering predicts phyllostomid bat responses to habitat disturbance in the Orinoco Llanos. Biodiversity and Conservation, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-024-02792-2

Which functional traits allow a bat species to survive habitat disturbance? Empirical evidence regarding this question remains limited for many tropical regions despite their importance for conservation. Here, we used body mass, wing morphology, trop... Read More about Trait-mediated filtering predicts phyllostomid bat responses to habitat disturbance in the Orinoco Llanos.

Bat Responses to Anthropogenic Forest Fragmentation: Insights from an Amazonian Fragmentation Experiment in Brazil (2024)
Book Chapter
Rocha, R., López-Baucells, A., Farneda, F. Z., & Meyer, C. F. J. (2024). Bat Responses to Anthropogenic Forest Fragmentation: Insights from an Amazonian Fragmentation Experiment in Brazil. In W. R. Spironello, A. A. Barnett, J. W. Lynch, P. E. Bobrowiec, & S. A. Boyle (Eds.), Amazonian Mammals (365-387). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43071-8_14

Forest loss and fragmentation are two of the most pressing threats to Amazonian biodiversity. This chapter examines the responses of bats, one of most species-rich Amazonian mammal groups, to anthropogenic forest fragmentation by providing an overvie... Read More about Bat Responses to Anthropogenic Forest Fragmentation: Insights from an Amazonian Fragmentation Experiment in Brazil.

Secondary forest buffers the effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bat species following 30 years of passive forest restoration (2024)
Journal Article
Rowley, S., López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P. E. D., & Meyer, C. F. J. (2024). Secondary forest buffers the effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bat species following 30 years of passive forest restoration. Restoration Ecology, e14093. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.14093

Passive forest restoration can buffer the effects of habitat loss on biodiversity. We acoustically surveyed aerial insectivorous bats in a whole‐ecosystem fragmentation experiment in the Brazilian Amazon over a 2‐year period, across 33 sites, compris... Read More about Secondary forest buffers the effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bat species following 30 years of passive forest restoration.

Fear or food? Prey availability is more important than predation risk in determining aerial insectivorous bat responses across a disturbed tropical forest landscape (2023)
Journal Article
Appel, G., Meyer, C. F. J., & Bobrowiec, P. E. D. (2023). Fear or food? Prey availability is more important than predation risk in determining aerial insectivorous bat responses across a disturbed tropical forest landscape. Biodiversity and Conservation, 32, 3217–3235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02647-2

Habitat disturbance affects, directly or indirectly, the predation risk and food available to animals. One group of animals that may be negatively affected by habitat disturbance are forest-dependent aerial insectivorous bats, especially in the Amazo... Read More about Fear or food? Prey availability is more important than predation risk in determining aerial insectivorous bat responses across a disturbed tropical forest landscape.

Good practice guidelines for long-term ecoacoustic monitoring in the UK (2023)
Report
Metcalf, O., Abrahams, C., Ashington, B., Baker, E., Bradfer-Lawrence, T., Browning, E., …Smith, S. Good practice guidelines for long-term ecoacoustic monitoring in the UK

The popularity of ecoacoustics as an innovative environmental discipline has enjoyed immense
growth within the last five years, to a point where it is now becoming difficult to keep up with
all the new research papers published. What soon becomes a... Read More about Good practice guidelines for long-term ecoacoustic monitoring in the UK.

Local and landscape scale effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in the Amazon (2022)
Thesis
Rowley, S. Local and landscape scale effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in the Amazon. (Dissertation). The University of Salford

Deforestation is the main driver of the biodiversity crisis. Resulting landscapes are left fragmented with isolated remnant forest patches embedded in a human-modified matrix which has the propensity to regenerate into successional forest. The Biolog... Read More about Local and landscape scale effects of fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in the Amazon.

Edge effects and vertical stratification of aerial insectivorous bats across the interface of primary-secondary Amazonian rainforest (2022)
Journal Article
Yoh, N., Clarke, J., López-Baucells, A., Mas, M., Bobrowiec, P., Rocha, R., & Meyer, C. (2022). Edge effects and vertical stratification of aerial insectivorous bats across the interface of primary-secondary Amazonian rainforest. PLoS ONE, 17(9), e0274637. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274637

Edge effects, abiotic and biotic changes associated with habitat boundaries, are key drivers of community change in fragmented landscapes. Their influence is heavily modulated by matrix composition. With over half of the world’s tropical forests pred... Read More about Edge effects and vertical stratification of aerial insectivorous bats across the interface of primary-secondary Amazonian rainforest.

Interplay between local and landscape-scale effects on the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of aerial insectivorous Neotropical bats (2022)
Journal Article
López-Baucells, A., Rowley, S., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P., Palmeirim, J., Farneda, F., & Meyer, C. (2022). Interplay between local and landscape-scale effects on the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of aerial insectivorous Neotropical bats. Landscape Ecology, 37(11), 2861-2875. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01493-x

Context Human-modified landscapes are globally ubiquitous. It is critical to understand how habitat loss and
fragmentation impact biodiversity from both a local habitat context and landscape-scale perspective to inform
land management and conservat... Read More about Interplay between local and landscape-scale effects on the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of aerial insectivorous Neotropical bats.

Reproductive phenologies of phyllostomid bats in the Central Amazon (2022)
Journal Article
Hazard, Q., Sabino-Pinto, J., López-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Meyer, C., & Rocha, R. (2022). Reproductive phenologies of phyllostomid bats in the Central Amazon. Mammalian Biology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00242-6

Mammals tend to align their most energetically demanding phenological events with periods of peak resource availability. Their reproductive phenology is influenced by local resource availability, potentially leading to geographical variation in their... Read More about Reproductive phenologies of phyllostomid bats in the Central Amazon.

Bat phylogenetic responses to regenerating Amazonian forests (2021)
Journal Article
Farneda, F. Z., Rocha, R., Aninta, S. G., López‐Baucells, A., Sampaio, E. M., Palmeirim, J. M., …Meyer, C. F. J. (2021). Bat phylogenetic responses to regenerating Amazonian forests. Journal of Applied Ecology, 59(8), 1986-1996. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14041

Throughout the tropics, regenerating secondary forests occupy vast areas previously cleared for agriculture and cattle ranching. However, despite the importance of regenerating forests in mitigating the pervasive negative consequences of forest loss... Read More about Bat phylogenetic responses to regenerating Amazonian forests.

Habitat disturbance trumps moonlight effects on the activity of tropical insectivorous bats (2021)
Journal Article
Appel, G., López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Meyer, C. F. J., & Bobrowiec, P. E. D. (2021). Habitat disturbance trumps moonlight effects on the activity of tropical insectivorous bats. Animal Conservation, 24(6), 1046-1058. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12706

Changes in moonlight intensity can affect predation risk and induce changes in habitat use and activity of nocturnal species. However, the effect of moonlight on animal activity is rarely evaluated in human-modified landscapes and can be of vital imp... Read More about Habitat disturbance trumps moonlight effects on the activity of tropical insectivorous bats.

Optimising bat bioacoustic surveys in human‐modified Neotropical landscapes (2021)
Journal Article
López-Baucells, A., Yoh, N., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2021). Optimising bat bioacoustic surveys in human‐modified Neotropical landscapes. Ecological Applications, 31(6), e02366. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2366

During the last decades, the use of bioacoustics as a non‐invasive and cost‐effective sampling method has greatly increased worldwide. For bats, acoustic surveys have long been known to complement traditional mist‐netting, however, appropriate protoc... Read More about Optimising bat bioacoustic surveys in human‐modified Neotropical landscapes.

Kin structure and roost fidelity in greater noctule bats (2021)
Journal Article
Santos, J., Meyer, C., Ibáñez, C., Popa-Lisseanu, A., & Juste, J. (2021). Kin structure and roost fidelity in greater noctule bats. Basic and Applied Ecology, 51, 20-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2021.02.001

Roost fidelity is an important aspect of mammalian biology. Studying the mechanisms underlying philopatry can help us understand a species’ energetic requirements, ecological constraints and social organisation. Temperate bat species notably exhibit... Read More about Kin structure and roost fidelity in greater noctule bats.

Consequences of replacing native savannahs with acacia plantations for the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic α- and β-diversity of bats in the northern Brazilian Amazon (2020)
Journal Article
Carvalho, W., Meyer, C., Xavier, B., Mustin, K., Castro, I., Silvestre, S., …Toledo, J. (2020). Consequences of replacing native savannahs with acacia plantations for the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic α- and β-diversity of bats in the northern Brazilian Amazon. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, 609214. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.609214

Across the globe, millions of hectares of native vegetation have been replaced by commercial plantations, with negative consequences for biodiversity. The effects of the replacement of native vegetation with commercial plantations on the functional a... Read More about Consequences of replacing native savannahs with acacia plantations for the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic α- and β-diversity of bats in the northern Brazilian Amazon.

Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences (2020)
Journal Article
Christie, A., Abecasis, D., ..., .., Meyer, C., ..., .., & Sutherland, W. (2020). Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences. Nature communications, 11(1), 6377. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20142-y

Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of intervention... Read More about Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences.

Echolocation of Central Amazonian 'whispering' phyllostomid bats : call design and interspecific variation (2020)
Journal Article
Yoh, N., Syme, P., Rocha, R., Meyer, C., & Lopez-Baucells, A. (2020). Echolocation of Central Amazonian 'whispering' phyllostomid bats : call design and interspecific variation. Mammal Research, 65, 583-597. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-020-00503-0

Phyllostomids (New World leaf-nosed bats) are the ecologically most diverse bat family and have undergone the most extensive adaptive radiation of any mammalian family. However comprehensive, multi-species studies regarding phyllostomid echolocation... Read More about Echolocation of Central Amazonian 'whispering' phyllostomid bats : call design and interspecific variation.

Author correction : a global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space (2020)
Journal Article
Jeliazkov, A., Mijatovic, D., Chantepie, S., Andrew, N., Arlettaz, R., Barbaro, L., …Chase, J. (2020). Author correction : a global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space. Scientific Data, 7(1), 79. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0420-z

Correction to: Scientific Data https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0344-7, published online 08 January 2020

Effects of forest fragmentation on the vertical stratification of neotropical bats (2020)
Journal Article
Silva, I., Rocha, R., López-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., & Meyer, C. (2020). Effects of forest fragmentation on the vertical stratification of neotropical bats. Diversity, 12(2), e67. https://doi.org/10.3390/d12020067

Vertical stratification is a key component of the biological complexity of rainforests. Understanding community- and species-level responses to disturbance across forest strata is paramount for evidence-based conservation and management. However, eve... Read More about Effects of forest fragmentation on the vertical stratification of neotropical bats.

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space (2020)
Journal Article
Jeliazkov, A., Mijatovic, D., Chantepie, S., Andrew, N., Arlettaz, R., Meyer, C., & et, A. (2020). A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space. Scientific Data, 7(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0344-7

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment... Read More about A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space.

Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats (2019)
Journal Article
Farneda, F., Meyer, C., & Grelle, C. (2019). Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats. Biotropica, 52(1), 120-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12736

Human land-use changes are particularly extensive in tropical regions, representing one of the greatest threats to terrestrial biodiversity and a key research topic in conservation. However, studies considering the effects of different types of anthr... Read More about Effects of land‐use change on functional and taxonomic diversity of Neotropical bats.

Erosion of phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical bat assemblages : findings from a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment (2019)
Journal Article
Aninta, S., Rocha, R., López-Baucells, A., & Meyer, C. (2019). Erosion of phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical bat assemblages : findings from a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment. Biodiversity and Conservation, 28(14), 4047-4063. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01864-y

The traditional focus on taxonomic diversity metrics for investigating species responses to habitat loss and fragmentation has limited our understanding of how biodiversity is impacted by habitat modification. This is particularly true for taxonomic... Read More about Erosion of phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical bat assemblages : findings from a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment.

Echolocation and stratum preference : key trait correlates of vulnerability of insectivorous bats to tropical forest fragmentation (2019)
Journal Article
Núñez, S., López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Farneda, F., Bobrowiec, P., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2019). Echolocation and stratum preference : key trait correlates of vulnerability of insectivorous bats to tropical forest fragmentation. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, 373. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00373

Habitat loss and fragmentation rank high amongst the most pressing threats to biodiversity. Understanding how variation in functional traits is associated with species vulnerability in fragmented landscapes is central to the design of effective conse... Read More about Echolocation and stratum preference : key trait correlates of vulnerability of insectivorous bats to tropical forest fragmentation.

Predicting biodiversity loss in island and countryside ecosystems through the lens of taxonomic and functional biogeography (2019)
Journal Article
Farneda, F., Grelle, C., Rocha, R., Ferreira, D., López-Baucells, A., & Meyer, C. (2020). Predicting biodiversity loss in island and countryside ecosystems through the lens of taxonomic and functional biogeography. Ecography, 43(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04507

We investigate how variation in patch area and forest cover quantified for three different spatial scales (buffer size of 500, 1500 and 3000 m radius) affects species richness and functional diversity of bat assemblages in two ecosystems differing in... Read More about Predicting biodiversity loss in island and countryside ecosystems through the lens of taxonomic and functional biogeography.

Second-growth and small forest clearings have little effect on the temporal activity patterns of Amazonian phyllostomid bats (2019)
Journal Article
Rocha, R., López-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Ferreira, D., Silva, I., Acácio, M., …Meyer, C. (2020). Second-growth and small forest clearings have little effect on the temporal activity patterns of Amazonian phyllostomid bats. Current Zoology, 66(2), 145-153. https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz042

Secondary forests and human-made forest gaps are conspicuous features of tropical landscapes. Yet, behavioural responses to these aspects of anthropogenically-modified forests remain poorly investigated. Here, we analyse th... Read More about Second-growth and small forest clearings have little effect on the temporal activity patterns of Amazonian phyllostomid bats.

FragSAD : a database of diversity and species abundance distributions from habitat fragments (2019)
Journal Article
Chase, J., Liebergesell, M., Sagouis, A., May, F., Blowes, S., Berg, A., …Ziv, Y. (2019). FragSAD : a database of diversity and species abundance distributions from habitat fragments. Ecology, 100(12), e02861. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2861

Habitat destruction is the single greatest anthropogenic threat to biodiversity. Decades of research on this issue have led to the accumulation of hundreds of data sets comparing species assemblages in larger, intact, habitats to smaller, more fragme... Read More about FragSAD : a database of diversity and species abundance distributions from habitat fragments.

A global risk assessment of primates under climate and land use/cover scenarios (2019)
Journal Article
Carvalho, J., Graham, B., Rebelo, H., Bocksberger, G., Meyer, C., Wich, S., & Kühl, H. (2019). A global risk assessment of primates under climate and land use/cover scenarios. Global Change Biology, 25(9), 3163-3178. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14671

Primates are facing an impending extinction crisis, driven by extensive habitat loss, land use change, and hunting. Climate change is an additional threat, which alone or in combination with other drivers, may severely impact those taxa unable to tra... Read More about A global risk assessment of primates under climate and land use/cover scenarios.

Bats and the city : urban bat biodiversity in a tropical biome transition zone (2019)
Thesis
Syme, P. Bats and the city : urban bat biodiversity in a tropical biome transition zone. (Dissertation). University of Salford

Urbanisation is an important factor in global land-use change which dramatically alters habitats at great detriment to wildlife. Our understanding of urban biodiversity patterns and their driving factors in tropical cities which interact with high le... Read More about Bats and the city : urban bat biodiversity in a tropical biome transition zone.

Stronger together : combining automated classifiers with manual post-validation optimizes the workload vs reliability trade-off of species identification in bat acoustic surveys (2018)
Journal Article
López-Baucells, A., Torrent, L., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2018). Stronger together : combining automated classifiers with manual post-validation optimizes the workload vs reliability trade-off of species identification in bat acoustic surveys. Ecological Informatics, 49(Jan 19), 45-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2018.11.004

Owing to major technological advances, bioacoustics has become a burgeoning field in
ecological research worldwide. Autonomous passive acoustic recorders are becoming widely
used to monitor aerial insectivorous bats, and automatic classifiers have... Read More about Stronger together : combining automated classifiers with manual post-validation optimizes the workload vs reliability trade-off of species identification in bat acoustic surveys.

Grazing improves habitat suitability for many ground foraging birds in Mediterranean wooded grasslands (2018)
Journal Article
birds in Mediterranean wooded grasslands. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 270-1, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.10.012

Wooded grasslands, usually grazed, cover vast areas in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. They host rich resident bird communities and, in winter, receive large numbers of migrants from Central and Northern European woodlands. Many species are part... Read More about Grazing improves habitat suitability for many ground foraging birds in Mediterranean wooded grasslands.

BioTIME : a database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene (2018)
Journal Article
Dornelas, M., Antão, L., Moyes, F., et, A., & Meyer, C. (2018). BioTIME : a database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 27(7), 760-786. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12729

Motivation

The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range... Read More about BioTIME : a database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene.

The road to functional recovery : temporal effects of matrix regeneration on Amazonian bats (2018)
Journal Article
Farneda, F., Rocha, R., Lopez-Baucells, A., Sampaio, E., Palmeirim, J., Bobrowiec, P., …Meyer, C. (2018). The road to functional recovery : temporal effects of matrix regeneration on Amazonian bats. Tropical Conservation Science, 11, https://doi.org/10.1177/1940082918777185

Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonment. Although secondary forest is an expanding type of landscape matrix that has been shown to buffer some of the negative consequences of forest loss an... Read More about The road to functional recovery : temporal effects of matrix regeneration on Amazonian bats.

The importance of lakes for bat conservation in Amazonian rainforests : an assessment using autonomous recorders (2018)
Journal Article
Torrent, L., Lopez-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P., & Meyer, C. (2018). The importance of lakes for bat conservation in Amazonian rainforests : an assessment using autonomous recorders. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 4(4), 339-351. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.83

Recent studies predict a future decrease in precipitation across the tropics, particularly the Amazon, likely causing significant droughts, with negative consequences for Amazonian freshwater biomes, especially lakes. Immediate consequences of global... Read More about The importance of lakes for bat conservation in Amazonian rainforests : an assessment using autonomous recorders.

Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape (2018)
Journal Article
Rocha, R., Ovaskainen, O., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Sampaio, E., Bobrowiec, P., …Meyer, C. (2018). Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape. Scientific reports, 8(3819), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21999-2

Tropical forest loss and fragmentation are due to increase in coming decades. Understanding how matrix dynamics, especially secondary forest regrowth, can lessen fragmentation impacts is key to understanding species persistence in modified landscapes... Read More about Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape.

Functional recovery of Amazonian bat assemblages following secondary forest succession (2017)
Journal Article
Farneda, F., Rocha, R., Lopez-Baucells, A., Sampaio, E., Palmeirim, J., Bobrowiec, P., …Meyer, C. (2017). Functional recovery of Amazonian bat assemblages following secondary forest succession. Biological Conservation, 218, 192-199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.12.036

Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, followed by land abandonment. Despite the importance of regenerating secondary forests for tropical biodiversity conservation,... Read More about Functional recovery of Amazonian bat assemblages following secondary forest succession.

Molecular, morphological and acoustic identification of Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae (Chiroptera: Molossidae) with new reports from Central Amazonia (2017)
Journal Article
Lopez-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Tavares, V., Moras, L., Silva, S., Bobrowiec, P., & Meyer, C. (2017). Molecular, morphological and acoustic identification of Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae (Chiroptera: Molossidae) with new reports from Central Amazonia. Tropical Zoology, 31(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/03946975.2017.1382284

Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae are rarely captured Neotropical molossid bats for
which information on taxonomy, natural history, and spatial distribution are scarce.
This translates into a poor understanding of their ecology and limits the delimit... Read More about Molecular, morphological and acoustic identification of Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae (Chiroptera: Molossidae) with new reports from Central Amazonia.

Geographical variation in the high-duty cycle echolocation of the cryptic common mustached bat Pteronotus cf. rubiginosus (Mormoopidae) (2017)
Journal Article
Lopez-Baucells, A., Torrent, L., Rocha, R., Pavan, A., Bobrowiec, P., & Meyer, C. (2017). Geographical variation in the high-duty cycle echolocation of the cryptic common mustached bat Pteronotus cf. rubiginosus (Mormoopidae). Bioacoustics, 27(4), 341-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2017.1357145

The use of bioacoustics as a tool for bat research is rapidly increasing worldwide. There is substantial evidence that environmental factors such as weather conditions or habitat structure can affect echolocation call structure in bats and thus compr... Read More about Geographical variation in the high-duty cycle echolocation of the cryptic common mustached bat Pteronotus cf. rubiginosus (Mormoopidae).

Design matters : an evaluation of the impact of small man-made forest clearings on tropical bats using a before-after-control-impact design (2017)
Journal Article
Rocha, R., Ovaskainen, O., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Ferreira, D., Bobrowiec, P., …Meyer, C. (2017). Design matters : an evaluation of the impact of small man-made forest clearings on tropical bats using a before-after-control-impact design. Forest Ecology and Management, 401, 8-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.06.053

In recent years, large clearings (>1000 ha) accounted for gradually smaller amounts of total annual deforestation
in the Brazilian Amazon, whereas the proportion of small clearings (<50 ha) nowadays represents
more than 80% of annual deforestation....

Does sex matter? Gender-specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats (2017)
Journal Article
Rocha, R., Ferreira, D., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Carreiras, J., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2017). Does sex matter? Gender-specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats. Biotropica, 49(6), 881-890. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12474

Understanding the consequences of habitat modification on wildlife communities is central to the development of conservation strategies. However, albeit male and female individuals of numerous species are known to exhibit differences in habitat use,... Read More about Does sex matter? Gender-specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats.

An Amazonian rainforest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change (2017)
Journal Article
Laurance, W., Camargo, J., Fearnside, P., Lovejoy, T., Williamson, B., Mesquita, R., …Laurance, S. (2017). An Amazonian rainforest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change. Biological Reviews, 93(1), 223-247. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12343

We synthesize findings from one of the world’s largest and longest-running experimental investigations, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP). Spanning an area of ~1,000 km2 in central Amazonia, the BDFFP was initially designed... Read More about An Amazonian rainforest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change.

Season-modulated responses of Neotropical bats to forest fragmentation (2017)
Journal Article
Ferreira, D., Rocha, R., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Carreiras, J., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2017). Season-modulated responses of Neotropical bats to forest fragmentation. Ecology and Evolution, 7(11), 4059-4071. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3005

Seasonality causes fluctuations in resource availability, affecting the presence and abundance of animal species. The impacts of these oscillations on wildlife populations can be exacerbated by habitat fragmentation. We assessed differences in bat sp... Read More about Season-modulated responses of Neotropical bats to forest fragmentation.

Dispersal and group formation dynamics in a rare and endangered temperate forest bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus, Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) (2016)
Journal Article
Santos, J., Meyer, C., Ibáñez, C., Popa-Lisseanu, A., & Juste, J. (2016). Dispersal and group formation dynamics in a rare and endangered temperate forest bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus, Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). Ecology and Evolution, 6(22), 8193-8204. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2330

For elusive mammals like bats, colonization of new areas and colony formation are poorly understood, as is their relationship with the genetic structure of populations. Understanding dispersal and group formation behaviors is critical not only for a... Read More about Dispersal and group formation dynamics in a rare and endangered temperate forest bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus, Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae).

Field guide to Amazonian Bats (2016)
Book
López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Bobrowiec, P., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2016). Field guide to Amazonian Bats. Manaus, Brazil: National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA)

Consequences of a large-scale fragmentation experiment for Neotropical bats : disentangling the relative importance of local and landscape-scale effects (2016)
Journal Article
Rocha, R., López-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Groenenberg, M., Bobrowiec, P., Cabeza, M., …Meyer, C. (2017). Consequences of a large-scale fragmentation experiment for Neotropical bats : disentangling the relative importance of local and landscape-scale effects. Landscape Ecology, 32(1), 31-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0425-3

Context
Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are widespread drivers of biodiversity decline. Understanding how habitat quality interacts with landscape context, and how they jointly affect species in human-modified landscapes, is of great im... Read More about Consequences of a large-scale fragmentation experiment for Neotropical bats : disentangling the relative importance of local and landscape-scale effects.

Responses of tropical bats to habitat fragmentation, logging, and deforestation (2015)
Book Chapter
Meyer, C. F., Struebig, M., & Willig, M. (2016). Responses of tropical bats to habitat fragmentation, logging, and deforestation. In C. C. Voigt, & T. Kingston (Eds.), Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World (63-103). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25220-9_4

Land-use change is a key driver of the global biodiversity crisis and a particularly serious threat to tropical biodiversity. Throughout the tropics, the staggering pace of deforestation, logging, and conversion of forested habitat to other land uses... Read More about Responses of tropical bats to habitat fragmentation, logging, and deforestation.

Assessing the structure of a Neotropical bat community using acoustic monitoring techniques (2015)
Journal Article
Estrada-Villegas, S., Meyer, C., McGill, B., & Kalko, E. (2015). Assessing the structure of a Neotropical bat community using acoustic monitoring techniques. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 138(3), 1905. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4933991

Determining the structure and composition of tropical communities is challenging because some species are rare or hard to detect. Within Neotropical bats, aerial insectivores have been systematically undersampled because they avoid mist nets, the tra... Read More about Assessing the structure of a Neotropical bat community using acoustic monitoring techniques.

Trait-related responses to habitat fragmentation in Amazonian bats (2015)
Journal Article
Farneda, F., Rocha, R., López-Baucells, A., Groenenberg, M., Silva, I., Palmeirim, J., …Meyer, C. (2015). Trait-related responses to habitat fragmentation in Amazonian bats. Journal of Applied Ecology, 52(5), 1381-1391. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12490

Summary:

Understanding how interspecific variation in functional traits influences species’ capacity to persist in fragments and use patches in fragmented landscapes is fundamental for the creation of effective conservation plans. This study uses... Read More about Trait-related responses to habitat fragmentation in Amazonian bats.

Methodological challenges in monitoring bat population - and assemblage-level changes for anthropogenic impact assessment (2014)
Journal Article
Meyer, C. F. (2014). Methodological challenges in monitoring bat population - and assemblage-level changes for anthropogenic impact assessment. Mammalian Biology, 80(3), 159-169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2014.11.002

Recent years have seen increased attention to bats as an effective bioindicator group for assessing responses to drivers of global change, which concurrently has led to a revived interest in establish-ing a global bat monitoring network. To be effect... Read More about Methodological challenges in monitoring bat population - and assemblage-level changes for anthropogenic impact assessment.

Where to nest? Ecological determinants of chimpanzee nest abundance and distribution at the habitat and tree species scale (2014)
Journal Article
Carvalho, J., Meyer, C. F., Vicente, L., & Marques, T. (2015). Where to nest? Ecological determinants of chimpanzee nest abundance and distribution at the habitat and tree species scale. American Journal of Primatology, 77(2), 186-199. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22321

Conversion of forests to anthropogenic land‐uses increasingly subjects chimpanzee populations to
habitat changes and concomitant alterations in the plant resources available to them for nesting and
feeding. Based on nest count surveys conducted dur... Read More about Where to nest? Ecological determinants of chimpanzee nest abundance and distribution at the habitat and tree species scale.

Species undersampling in tropical bat surveys : effects on emerging biodiversity patterns (2014)
Journal Article
Meyer, C., Aguiar, L., Aguirre, J., Baumgarten, J., Clarke, F., Cosson, J., …Kalko, E. (2014). Species undersampling in tropical bat surveys : effects on emerging biodiversity patterns. Journal of Animal Ecology, 84(1), 113-123. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12261

Summary:

Undersampling is commonplace in biodiversity surveys of species-rich tropical assemblages in which rare taxa abound, with possible repercussions for our ability to implement surveys and monitoring programmes in a cost-effective way.

We... Read More about Species undersampling in tropical bat surveys : effects on emerging biodiversity patterns.

Echolocation of the big red bat Lasiurus egregius(Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) and first record from the Central Brazilian Amazon (2014)
Journal Article
López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., Fernández-Arellano, G., Bobrowiec, P., Palmeirim, J., & Meyer, C. (2014). Echolocation of the big red bat Lasiurus egregius(Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) and first record from the Central Brazilian Amazon. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 49(1), 18-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/01650521.2014.907600

Lasiurus egregius (Peters, 1870) is a rare Neotropical vespertilionid bat and virtually no data on its ecology and echolocation calls are currently available. We report the capture of four individuals in the Central Amazon, representing the first rec... Read More about Echolocation of the big red bat Lasiurus egregius(Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) and first record from the Central Brazilian Amazon.

Predicting biodiversity change and averting collapse in agricultural landscapes (2014)
Journal Article
Mendenhall, C., Karp, D., Meyer, C., Hadly, E., & Daily, G. (2014). Predicting biodiversity change and averting collapse in agricultural landscapes. Nature, 509, 213-217. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13139

The equilibrium theory of island biogeography1 is the basis for estimating
extinction rates2 and a pillar of conservation science3,4. The
default strategy for conserving biodiversity is the designation of
nature reserves, treated as islands in an... Read More about Predicting biodiversity change and averting collapse in agricultural landscapes.

First record of Micronycteris sanborni (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Central Amazonia, Brazil: range expansion and description of its echolocation (2013)
Journal Article
López-Baucells, A., Rocha, R., García-Mayes, I., Vulinec, K., & Meyer, C. F. (2013). First record of Micronycteris sanborni (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Central Amazonia, Brazil: range expansion and description of its echolocation. Mammalia, 78(1), 127-132. https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2013-0006

This note reports the first record of Micronycteris
sanborni in Amazonas State, Brazil. It extends the species ’
known range > 2000 km northwestward and represents
the first record of M. sanborni in a humid tropical ecosystem,
suggesting that the... Read More about First record of Micronycteris sanborni (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Central Amazonia, Brazil: range expansion and description of its echolocation.

A comparison of habitat use by phyllostomid bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in natural forest fragments and Eucalyptus plantations in the Brazilian Cerrado (2013)
Journal Article
Pina, S., Meyer, C. F., & Zórtea, M. (2013). A comparison of habitat use by phyllostomid bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in natural forest fragments and Eucalyptus plantations in the Brazilian Cerrado. Chiroptera Neotropical (Impresso), 19(3), 14-30

We compared bat assemblages in semideciduous forest fragments in Brazilian Cerrado with those of eucalyptus plantations (Eucalyptus spp.). Specifically, we assessed differences in species richness, diversity, abundance, and species composition betwee... Read More about A comparison of habitat use by phyllostomid bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in natural forest fragments and Eucalyptus plantations in the Brazilian Cerrado.

Out of the dark : diurnal activity in the bat Hipposideros ruber on São Tomé island (West Africa) (2011)
Journal Article
Russo, D., Maglio, G., Rainho, A., Meyer, C. F., & Palmeirim, J. (2011). Out of the dark : diurnal activity in the bat Hipposideros ruber on São Tomé island (West Africa). Mammalian Biology, 76(6), 701-708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2010.11.007

Geographical areas historically characterized by a lower risk of diurnal avian predation should in theory
allow bats to be active in daytime too, especially to forage. Oceanic islands are ideal for studying temporal
niche shifts in bats since they... Read More about Out of the dark : diurnal activity in the bat Hipposideros ruber on São Tomé island (West Africa).

Accounting for detectability improves estimates of species richness in tropical bat surveys (2011)
Journal Article
Meyer, C. F., Aguiar, L., Aguirre, L., Baumgarten, J., Clarke, F., Cosson, J., …Kalko, E. (2011). Accounting for detectability improves estimates of species richness in tropical bat surveys. Journal of Applied Ecology, 48(3), 777-787. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.01976.x

Summary


1. Species richness is a state variable of some interest in monitoring programmes but raw species counts are often biased due to imperfect species detectability. Therefore, monitoring programmes should quantify detectability for target t... Read More about Accounting for detectability improves estimates of species richness in tropical bat surveys.

Emergence time and foraging activity in Pallas' Mastiff Bat, Molossus molossus(Chiroptera: Molossidae) in relation to sunset/sunrise and phase of the moon (2011)
Journal Article
Holland, R., Meyer, C. F., Kalko, E., Kays, R., & Wikelski, M. (2011). Emergence time and foraging activity in Pallas' Mastiff Bat, Molossus molossus(Chiroptera: Molossidae) in relation to sunset/sunrise and phase of the moon. Acta Chiropterologica, 13(2), 399-404. https://doi.org/10.3161/150811011X624875

The decision on when to emerge from the safety of a roost and forage for prey is thought to be a result of the trade off between peak insect abundance and predation pressure for bats. In this study we show that the velvety free-tailed bat Molossus mo... Read More about Emergence time and foraging activity in Pallas' Mastiff Bat, Molossus molossus(Chiroptera: Molossidae) in relation to sunset/sunrise and phase of the moon.

Long-term monitoring of tropical bats for anthropogenic impact assessment : gauging the statistical power to detect population change (2010)
Journal Article
Meyer, C. F., Aguiar, L., Aguirre, L., Baumgarten, J., Clarke, F., Cosson, J., …Kalko, E. (2010). Long-term monitoring of tropical bats for anthropogenic impact assessment : gauging the statistical power to detect population change. Biological Conservation, 143(11), 2797-2807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.07.029

Bats are ecologically important mammals in tropical ecosystems; however, their populations face numerous environmental threats related to climate change, habitat loss, fragmentation, hunting, and emerging diseases. Thus, there is a pressing need to d... Read More about Long-term monitoring of tropical bats for anthropogenic impact assessment : gauging the statistical power to detect population change.

Effects of tropical forest fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in a land-bridge island system (2010)
Journal Article
Estrada-Villegas, S., Meyer, C. F., & Kalko, E. (2010). Effects of tropical forest fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in a land-bridge island system. Biological Conservation, 143(3), 597-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.11.009

Habitat fragmentation causes drastic changes in the biota and it is crucial to understand these modifications to mitigate its consequences. While studies on Neotropical bats have mainly targeted phyllostomid bats, impacts of fragmentation on the equa... Read More about Effects of tropical forest fragmentation on aerial insectivorous bats in a land-bridge island system.

Tropical bats : suitable candidates for long-term monitoring?
Presentation / Conference
Meyer, C. F. Tropical bats : suitable candidates for long-term monitoring?. Presented at International Symposium on the Importance of Bats as Bioindicators, Granollers

The impact of edge-effects on aerial insectivorous bat assemblages in the Amazon
Thesis
Yoh, N. (in press). The impact of edge-effects on aerial insectivorous bat assemblages in the Amazon. (Dissertation). University of Salford

Edge effects, the abiotic and biotic changes associated with habitat boundaries, are amongst the most important factors determining a species’ distribution in human-modified landscapes. Bats are the second most diverse mammalian order, however many s... Read More about The impact of edge-effects on aerial insectivorous bat assemblages in the Amazon.

An Amazonian forest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change
Presentation / Conference
Laurance, W., Camargo, J., Fearnside, P., Lovejoy, T., Williamson, G., Mesquita, R., …Laurance, S. An Amazonian forest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change

We synthesize findings from the world’s largest and longest-running experimental study of habitat fragmentation, in central Amazonia. Over the past 36 years, 11 forest fragments ranging from 1 ha to 100 ha in size have experienced a wide array of eco... Read More about An Amazonian forest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change.