Construction of functional biodiversity indicators to estimate the presence and activity of bats in agroecosystems of the Rolling Pampa
The loss of biodiversity in modern agriculture has resulted in the weakening of associated ecosystem services and an increase in the use of chemical inputs. Agroecology pointed out that it is possible to design and manage sustainable agroecosystems that minimize or eliminate the use of chemical inputs. One of them is the control by natural enemies such as bats. Their presence and activity may have an important place in strategies to strengthen the Biotic Regulatory Potential (PRB). PRB can be defined as the potential capacity of an agroecosystem to keep pest populations regulated through their ecological functions. In the province of Buenos Aires, bats are exclusively insectivores, and they play a fundamental role in natural areas as regulators of insect populations. Evaluating the capacity of a system to favor its presence and activity requires the development of simple indicators that can be applied on farms. Indicators were constructed based on a) the structure of the system and b) the management of the farmers. Its usefulness was tested in three farms located in the Rolling Pampa (Buenos Aires). The diversity and abundance of the captured bats coincided with the values of the indicators, confirming that are good estimators of the presence and activity of bats. This allows the development of management strategies that favor bats as biological controllers.
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | spa |
| Published: |
Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata
2021
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| Online Access: | https://revistas.unlp.edu.ar/revagro/article/view/16699513e083 |
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