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The interplay of spatial scale and landscape transformation modulates the abundance and intraspecific variation in the ecomorphological traits of a phyllostomid bat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2021

Andrés F. Ramírez-Mejía Open the ORCID record for Andrés F. Ramírez-Mejía [Opens in a new window] ,
J. Nicolás Urbina-Cardona Open the ORCID record for J. Nicolás Urbina-Cardona [Opens in a new window]  and
Francisco Sánchez
Andrés F. Ramírez-Mejía*
Affiliation:
Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá – Colombia ECOTONOS Research group, Universidad de los Llanos, Villavicencio – Colombia Instituto de Ecología Regional (IER) UNT – CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Yerba Buena – Argentina
J. Nicolás Urbina-Cardona
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología y Territorio, Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá – Colombia
Francisco Sánchez
Affiliation:
ECOTONOS Research group, Universidad de los Llanos, Villavicencio – Colombia Programa de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería, Universidad de los Llanos, Villavicencio – Colombia
*
Author for correspondence: Andrés F. Ramírez-Mejía, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Land use intensification imposes selective pressures that systematically change the frequency of wild population phenotypes. Growing evidence is biased towards the comparison of populations from discrete categories of land uses, ignoring the role of landscape emerging properties on the phenotype selection of wild fauna. Across the largest urban–rural gradient of the Colombian Orinoquia, we measured ecomorphological traits of 216 individuals of the flat-faced fruit-eating bat Artibeus planirostris. We did this to evaluate the scale of effect at which landscape transformation better predicts changes in phenotype and abundance of an urban-tolerant species. Forest percentage at 1.25 km was the main predictor affecting negatively bat abundance and positively its wing aspect ratio and body mass. Landscape variables affected forearm length at all spatial scales, this effect appeared to be sex-dependent, and the most important predictor, forest percentage at 0.5 km, had a negative effect on this trait. Our results indicate that landscape elements and spatial scale interact to shape ecomorphological traits and the abundance of A. planirostris. Interestingly, the scale of effect coincided at 1.25 km among all biological responses, suggesting that species’ abundance can be linked to the variation on phenotype under different environmental filters across landscape scenarios.

Keywords

functional traitsmorphological variationNeotropical batsscale of effecturban ecologywing morphology
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 31 - 38
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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