RT journal article
T1 Structural simplification compromises the potential of common insectivorous bats to provide biocontrol services against the major olive pest Prays oleae
A1 Costa, Ana
A1 Silva, Bruno
A1 Jiménez-Navarro, Gerardo
A1 Barreiro, Sílvia
A1 Melguizo, Nereida
A1 Rodríguez-Pérez, Javier
A1 Vasconcelos, Sasha
A1 Beja, Pedro
A1 Moreira, Francisco
A1 Herrera Vega, José Manuel
A2 Biología
AB Crop production intensification often leads to the structural simplification of production systems. This structuralsimplification is expected to have strong impacts on biodiversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services, butinformation about this topic is scarce. For instance, no information exists for Mediterranean olive (Olea europaea)groves, despite olive farming representing a significant share of the agricultural sector in some Europeancountries. We investigated the impact of in-farm and landscape-level structural simplification on the potential ofthree common insectivorous bats (i.e., Pipistrellus kuhlii, P. pygmaeus and P. pipistrellus) to provide biocontrolservices against one of the most harmful olive pests worldwide, the olive fruit moth Prays oleae. Bats and insectsurveys were both carried out in olive groves representing increasing levels of structural simplification andduring three sampling seasons (spring, summer and autumn). At grove-level, structural simplification wasconsidered as resulting from reduced planting pattern variability (i.e., tree and row spacing) and tree features(diameter at breast height, height of the trunk and canopy area), while at landscape level was considered asresulting from reduced land-cover types. We found that the Kuhl’s pipistrelle was the most frequently recordedspecies in all types of olive groves and seasons. Moreover, the activity levels of pipistrelle bats as a wholesignificantly decreased with the structural simplification of olive groves. The abundance of P. oleae was highestat intermediate levels of structural simplification, irrespective of the season. Forest cover in the surroundinglandscape had a significant positive influence on the activity levels of P. kuhlii, and a significant and negativeinfluence on the abundance of P. oleae. Our study demonstrates that structural simplification differentially in-fluences the activity patterns of both insectivorous bats and insect pests within olive groves. Moreover, it sug-gests that structural simplification may strongly compromise biocontrol services provided by bats on the majorolive pest P. oleae.
PB Elsevier
SN 0167-8809
YR 2019
FD 2019
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/30621
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/30621
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026