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Tracking dietary habits of cave arthropods associated with deposits of hematophagous bat guano: A study from a neotropical savanna
Author(s) -
Salgado Simone S.,
Motta Paulo C.,
Souza Aguiar Ludmilla M.,
Nardoto Gabriela B.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
austral ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.688
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 1442-9985
DOI - 10.1111/aec.12116
Subject(s) - guano , cave , biology , ecology , plant litter , predation , litter , zoology , ecosystem
Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes were used to track major dietary variations in arthropods found in a cave located in a neotropical savanna in C entral B razil. We determined the δ 13 C and δ 15 N for cave crickets, cockroaches, spiders, guano of a hematophagous bat, and leaf litter found on the ground near the cave entrance. The δ 13 C and δ 15 N for the cricket and cockroaches showed that bat guano was not the only food item for these arthropods. They had intermediate δ 13 C and δ 15 N between bat guano and leaf litter, which means that they consumed additional food resources other than guano in their diet, independent of distribution of guano deposits in the cave. The spiders, predators with great mobility, seemed to not have a preferential diet item since their isotope signals indicated they hunt both crickets and cockroaches. The δ 13 C of the bat guano (−15.4‰) indicated that the diet of these hematophagous bats relied on animals fed with C 4 plants. The conversion of native savanna vegetation of which the debris is mostly from C 3 plants, to pasture, based on C 4 African grass, a remarkably common land use transformation in the region, is indirectly influencing the diet of hematophagous bats, which basically relied on exotic fauna. The C and N stable isotope ratios showed that the arthropods inside the cave do not rely solely on bat guano for their diet, but interact directly with the external environment, through litter debris, indicating a significant exchange of energy and matter between the cave environment and the surrounding area.